question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
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As the founder of the first comprehensive Sensory Processing Disorder research program nationwide, and author of groundbreaking Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder and No Longer A SECRET: Unique Common Sense Strategies for Children with Sensory or Motor Challenges, Dr. Lucy Jane Miller's name is synonymous with sensory research<|fim_middle|> | , education, and treatment.
Dr. Miller has been investigating, analyzing, and explaining Sensory Processing Disorder to other scientists, professionals, and parents since she studied under sensory integration pioneer A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., more than thirty years ago. Since then, studies by Dr. Miller and her colleagues have helped bring SPD widespread recognition, and her work with families has improved countless lives. Thanks specifically to Dr. Miller's mobilization of the research community, SPD now appears in two diagnostic manuals: the ICDL's Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and The Diagnostic Classification: Zero to Three. Her application has led to consideration of SPD for inclusion in the 2013 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V). Dr. Miller has also developed seven nationally standardized tests for use worldwide to assess and diagnose SPD and other developmental disorders and delays. Dr. Miller's widespread recognition and enormous credibility within the professional community are part of the reason that advanced clinicians travel from all over the United States and other countries to be mentored by Dr. Miller and her team at the SPD Foundation (formerly KID Foundation) that she founded three decades ago. | 236 |
Prosumers for energy inclusiveness: leaving no-one behind
What will a desirable energy future look like for prosumers?
The production of renewable energy is on the rise in Europe. A big role is reserved for 'energy citizens', who could generate up to 45% of the European Unions' electricity needs by 2050—out of which 37% could be produced by collective projects and energy cooperatives. Individuals and collectives are no longer mere consumers of energy, today many already produce renewable energy and actively engage in energy markets – they have become prosumers.
Exploring the future of prosumerism for energy inclusiveness means exploring the tensions between two main directions: will the future of prosumerism be inclusive or will it be for the privileged? Which side of the spectrum becomes dominant depends on key societal conditions, such as infrastructural, political, or technocratic factors, the degree of complexity of prosumer-related bureaucracy, as well as pricing (dis)incentives and subsidy schemes. In addition, socio-economic and cultural factors such as the prosumer initiative participants' socio-economic status, his/her financial means, gender, social capital, as well as his/her 'energy literacy', will determine to a considerable extent who participates in prosumer initiatives and how.
Direction: Inclusive energy future
This scenario envisages collectives, whether public or private, that engage in the production and consumption of energy while taking the public interest as their leading motivation. They ensure that, beyond a narrower circle of initiators and shareholders, a wider community benefits from the activities. Diversity in the composition of (advisory) board and executive committees are actively encouraged, just as (community) members are empowered to participate and share skills and expertise. There is commitment to democratic decision-making and the voices of the lesser heard are encouraged and amplified. Everyone is deemed worthy of benefitting from the solutions.
Direction: An energy future for the privileged
In this scenario, individuals or collectives are primarily interested in their own and/or mutual interest, which forms the starting point for redistributing benefits among themselves. They generally have the financial means, expertise, and social/professional networks that facilitate their venture into prosumerism. When forming alliances, they are meant for mutual convenience, serving as an extension of self-interest: to have access to secure, affordable, and renewable energy supply. The mainstreaming of privileged prosumerism could very well skew the market for a happy few that can afford it, while prices, perhaps even the access to prosumption itself, become prohibitive for all others.
Tensions within and between the two models of prosumerism
The two directions may appear as extreme opposites. However, inclusiveness remains an elusive dimension of our energy systems. Just as a privileged system may create safeguards to avoid energy poverty, albeit in<|fim_middle|> and take place on 24 June 2020 using Zoom.
The fourth e-workshop, synthesising the results and roadmaps developed during the previous meetings, will take place at the end of October 2020.
Image copyright: Graphic recording of e-workshop on Prosumers for Energy Inclusiveness by "Carlotta Cataldi" | a top-down manner, an apparently inclusive system can have a number of hidden pitfalls that weaken its intentions.
While inclusiveness is a guiding principle in many civic or public-led collective initiatives, from an energy system perspective, it begs the question whether these initiatives may unwittingly be perpetuating some of the exclusionary and privileging tendencies of today's societies, especially in the largely unregulated niche of prosumerism. They may favour participants of a certain gender and of sufficient financial means, as well as participants that have the expertise and time to be more closely involved in decision-making. Cooperatives are after all private organisations that are free to open their objectives to the general public but may also focus exclusively on the narrower circle of their members.
Finding a future that works
The possible futures for prosumerism will in reality lie somewhere between the two extremes presented here. For example, municipalities are stepping up as guarantors of a more inclusive energy future. Prosumer collectives join forces to network and lobby together for their own inclusion in energy systems. Even though current societal conditions are favouring more exclusive forms of prosumerism and energy futures, initiatives are stepping up in a growing movement for more energy justice.
Those issues were the focus of the second in a series of four e-workshops organised by PROSEU project partners ClientEarth and eco-union on 29 April 2020. You can find the programme and all the presentations of this and the first workshop on Prosumer Business Models, which took place on 25 March 2020, here.
The third e-workshop will discuss "Future energy systems: Prosumer islands or a new IoT community?" | 338 |
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Wyoming Case Law › Wyoming Supreme Court Decisions › 19<|fim_middle|> the claims as the "same" by reference to the district court's Order Granting Summary Judgment to HOM, Inc. | 95 › Tidwell v. HOM, Inc.
Appeal from District Court, Laramie County, Nicholas G. Kalokathis, J.
Donna D. Hoffdahl of Hoffdahl Law Office, Cheyenne, for appellants.
Patrick E. Hacker, Cheyenne, for appellee.
[¶1] A latent defect in privately owned housing, rented with governmental assistance, caused debilitating health problems and stress disorders for appellants. Appellants sued the agency providing rental assistance, only to suffer summary judgment for lack of a duty running from that agency to appellants. Undaunted, appellants filed the same claim against HOM, Inc., which had contracted with the previously sued agency to inspect rentals. Finding that HOM, Inc. can neither bargain for nor incur more duty to appellants than the agency owned them, we affirm the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of HOM, Inc.
I. Whether Congress or the agency intended to confer standing upon tenants receiving Section 8 rental subsidies to enforce contract terms between the local public housing authority and its agents as third party beneficiaries.
II. Whether the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act bars a personal injury action against the agent of a public housing authority absent tortious conduct on the part of the agency.
III. Whether appellants' proper remedy is an action against the owner of the property, rather than HOM, Inc.
IV. Whether appellants, by execution of the indemnity agreement have agreed to hold CHA [Cheyenne Housing Authority], and its agent HOM, Inc., harmless from any personal injury claims.
[¶4] Appellants, Ronni and Cecilia Tidwell (the Tidwells), mother and daughter, rented a privately owned Cheyenne, Wyoming home from Leonard Sullivan in February 1988, assisted by partial rent subsidy payments provided through the Cheyenne Housing Authority. The subsidy payments originated with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pursuant to the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended by § 8 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. § 1437f (1988)).
[¶5] Soon after the Tidwells moved in, Ronni began to experience debilitating headaches and nausea, resulting in loss of employment and an increasing inability to care for herself or her daughter. In addition, Cecilia, fearing that her mother's death was imminent, began to experience "separation anxiety disorder." Enlisting, inter alia, the assistance of personnel from Cheyenne's City Engineer's office and the Cheyenne Fire Department, Ronni sought in vain to establish an environmental etiology for her health problems.
[¶6] Eighteen months after the headaches began, a Cheyenne artisan, to be immortalized in these proceedings only as "Bill the Plumber," found an open sewer pipe, hidden under building materials in the basement of the Tidwell rental, which was leaking methane fumes into the area of Ronni's bedroom. Ronni's physician confirmed that her maladies were consistent with those caused by exposure to sewer gas, i.e., methane.
[¶7] Claiming a duty to provide safe and sanitary housing had been breached, the Tidwells filed suit against their landlord, Leonard Sullivan, and their rent subsidy benefactors, the Cheyenne Housing Authority. Finding no duty running from the Cheyenne Housing Authority to the Tidwells, the district court granted partial summary judgment for the Cheyenne Housing Authority. That judgment was not appealed.
[¶8] Undeterred, the Tidwells filed what the district court would term the "same claim" against HOM, Inc. (HOM),1 alleging that HOM provided inspection services for the Cheyenne Housing Authority and was negligent in failing to find the offending sewer pipe. The Tidwells' suit against HOM was consolidated with the surviving cause against the landlord under the same action wherein summary judgment had, earlier, been granted in favor of the Cheyenne Housing Authority.
[¶9] HOM moved for summary judgment, disclaiming any duty to the Tidwells. The Tidwells responded, asserting they were beneficiaries of an implied covenant of ordinary care running from HOM. Finding no issue of material fact and no duty on HOM favoring the Tidwells, the district court granted partial summary judgment to HOM, from which the Tidwells timely prosecuted this appeal.
[¶10] Appellate affirmation of summary judgment is warranted only in the absence of genuine issues of material fact when the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. W.R.C.P. 56(c); Lincoln v. Wackenhut Corp., 867 P.2d 701, 702 (Wyo. 1994). Materiality arises from a fact's capacity to establish or refute an essential element of a claim or defense thereto. Lyden v. Winer, 878 P.2d 516, 518 (Wyo. 1994). Once the movant establishes a prima facie case for summary judgment, the opposing party is obliged to marshall specific facts, as opposed to general or conclusory allegations, which establish genuine issues of material fact. Thomas by Thomas v. South Cheyenne Water and Sewer Dist., 702 P.2d 1303, 1304 (Wyo. 1985) (quoting Roth v. First Sec. Bank of Rock Springs, Wyo., 684 P.2d 93, 95 (Wyo. 1984)). Without deference to the district court's conclusions, appellate review indulges the pleadings of the party opposing summary judgment with the benefit of every favorable inference which may fairly be derived from the record. Hanna v. Cloud 9, Inc., 889 P.2d 529, 532 (Wyo. 1995).
[¶11] Summary judgments merit exacting scrutiny in negligence actions. MacKrell v. Bell H2S Safety, 795 P.2d 776, 779 (Wyo. 1990). However, even when negligence is alleged, summary judgment may be appropriate. Brown v. Avery, 850 P.2d 612, 614-15 (Wyo. 1993). This usually occurs because duty is the first essential element of any negligence action. Danculovich v. Brown, 593 P.2d 187, 195 (Wyo. 1979). The existence of duty is a question of law for the court and without duty, negligence is not a viable theory of recovery. Hill v. Park County By and Through Bd. of County Com'rs, 856 P.2d 456, 458 (Wyo. 1993) (quoting MacKrell, 795 P.2d at 779).
[¶12] Duty sufficient to support an action for negligence may be engendered by common law, statute or contract. Brubaker v. Glenrock Lodge Intern. Order of Odd Fellows, 526 P.2d 52, 58 (Wyo. 1974). In opposing summary judgment, the Tidwells asserted that HOM's duty took the form of an implied covenant of ordinary care.
[¶13] Such an implied covenant may arise from a contract which creates a relationship engendering a duty to exercise ordinary care. Id. at 59. Although the duty at issue in Brubaker was between the parties to a contract, it is clear that such a duty may also extend to third-party beneficiaries in the proper circumstances. Ely v. Kirk, 707 P.2d 706, 710 (Wyo. 1985). Here, however, the Tidwells, insisting themselves to be third-party beneficiaries, presented the district court with a housing voucher contract between the Cheyenne Housing Authority and Leonard Sullivan, two strangers to this appeal. Without a contract involving HOM, there can be little basis for a covenant, implied or otherwise.
[¶14] Moreover, the Tidwells' case against HOM was not written upon a clean slate. See CLS v. CLJ, 693 P.2d 774, 775 (Wyo. 1985). The district court had already found that no duty ran from the Cheyenne Housing Authority to the Tidwells. Not having appealed that judgment, the Tidwells cannot resurrect their moribund arguments against the Cheyenne Housing Authority in their suit against HOM.
[¶15] Generally, when a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to its judgment, relitigation of the issue in a suit involving one of the parties to that judgment is precluded. Atchison v. State of Wyo., 763 F.2d 388, 391 (10th Cir. 1985). To permit the contrary is to imbue the courts with "the aura TEXT] of the gaming table[.]" Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation, 402 U.S. 313, 329, 91 S. Ct. 1434, 1443, 28 L.E.2d 788 (1971). The certainty of that rule is enhanced where the legal duties of a second defendant are purely derivative of one in whose favor judgment has already been entered. Reconstruction Finance Corporation v. First Nat. Bank of Cody, 17 F.R.D. 397, 405 (D.Wyo. 1955).
[¶16] Appendix "A" to the Tidwells' appellate brief appears to be a contract between the Cheyenne Housing Authority and HOM, relative inter alia, to inspection of units for "the Section 8 Existing [Housing] Program[.]" By any stretch of the legal imagination, such an appendage remains much too little, submitted far too late and entirely improperly to serve as a cornerstone for the Tidwells' case. Gifford v. Casper Neon Sign Co., Inc., 618 P.2d 547, 551 (Wyo. 1980). Were that contract properly before us, however, it could not facilitate a more favorable result for the Tidwells in the absence of duty upon the Cheyenne Housing Authority.
[¶17] The Tidwells' implied covenant of ordinary care claim against HOM necessarily requires them to establish their status as third-party beneficiaries of the contract between HOM and the Cheyenne Housing Authority. We hold that third-party beneficiary claims against promisor HOM must, necessarily, be vulnerable to those defenses available to promisee Cheyenne Housing Authority as against the same claims. Farmers' State Bank of Worland v. Nicholson, 36 Wyo. 221, 226-27, 254 P. 134, 135 (1927). Insofar as the Cheyenne Housing Authority's defense to the Tidwells' claims has been the subject of a final and binding judgment, HOM may suffer no lesser fate at the hands of the Tidwells, at least upon any third-party beneficiary theory. Third-party beneficiaries depend upon a clear duty exacted from the promisor by the promisee in favor of the third party seeking relief. McNeill v. New York City Housing Authority, 719 F. Supp. 233, 249 (S.D.N.Y. 1989). When the promisee has been absolved of duty to the third party, the nexus between the promisor and the third party is irretrievably broken.
[¶18] Assuming, arguendo, that the Cheyenne Housing Authority's lack of duty to the Tidwells did not obviate a duty to exercise ordinary care, as between HOM and the Tidwells, Brubaker remains far less than a foundation upon which the Tidwells might build a claim. The Brubaker holding is limited to unskillful or negligent construction as expressly contrasted with use and failure to inspect. Brubaker, 526 P.2d at 57-59.
[¶19] The Tidwells also claim that HOM owes them a duty because they are beneficiaries of Section 8 (42 U.S.C. § 1437f) housing assistance, administered by the Cheyenne Housing Authority for HUD. This theory, too, is made problematic by the district court's judgment finding that the Cheyenne Housing Authority owed no duty to the Tidwells.
[¶20] Nonetheless, because HOM provided rental inspection services to the Cheyenne Housing Authority, the Tidwells assert a cause against HOM for failure to comply with regulations promulgated by HUD which resulted "in a duty by HOM, Inc., to provide safe, sanitary and decent housing for low income people."
[¶21] Vindication of statutory entitlements may occur through declaratory judgments against the governmental agency charged with administering the statutes in question. See, e.g., Davidson v. Sherman, 848 P.2d 1341 (Wyo. 1993) and Wright v. City of Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, 479 U.S. 418, 107 S. Ct. 766, 93 L. Ed. 2d 781 (1987). Such an action is inapposite here because, as the Tidwells correctly insist, HOM is not a governmental entity but an independent contractor doing business with a governmental entity. Therefore, although the Tidwells seek relief based upon statute, their cause of action against HOM is a "private" cause of action.
[¶22] Private rights of action arising from statute may, generally, be pursued either where the statute creates such a private right or the claimant can establish his status as a third-party beneficiary of a contract made to fulfill a governmental obligation. Anthony Jon Waters, The Property in the Promise: A Study of the Third Party Beneficiary Rule, 98 Harv.L.Rev. 1109, 1173 (1985). However, even if statutory violations are demonstrated, a private cause of action may not lie in the face of congressional silence. Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U.S. 560, 571, 99 S. Ct. 2479, 2486, 61 L. Ed. 2d 82 (1979); Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 688, 99 S. Ct. 1946, 1953, 60 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979). No private cause of action is claimed or can be discerned from 42 U.S.C. § 1437f. This leaves us on the thin ice of enforcing governmental obligations as third-party beneficiaries.
[¶23] Failure to broach third-party beneficiary status before the district court, vis-a-vis the statute, should doom the Tidwells' efforts to raise it for the first time here, despite the parties' obsession with the topic in their briefs. Ford v. Starr Fireworks, Inc., 874 P.2d 230, 235 (Wyo. 1994). That obsession cannot gainsay the issue's unrecognized status before the district court, even in the context of arguments concerning the putative covenant of ordinary care. Suffice it here to say that the Tidwells' claims of statutory duty are stymied at the familiar threshold of the district court's binding judgment that the Cheyenne Housing Authority owed no duty to the Tidwells.
[¶24] Duty upon the Cheyenne Housing Authority is a sine qua non for the Tidwells' efforts to impose a duty upon HOM, whether by common law, contract or statute. When the district court found no duty upon the Cheyenne Housing Authority, the Tidwells were foreclosed from asserting any duty upon HOM.
[¶25] The district court found the Cheyenne Housing Authority to be without an enforceable duty to the Tidwells and that judgment was not appealed. A generous district court afforded the Tidwells a second bite of the jurisprudential apple by considering their suit against HOM. However, reversal of the district court's summary judgment in that second cause would be nothing less than sanctioning unwarranted collateral attack upon the first judgment. Travis v. Travis' Estate, 79 Wyo. 329, 335-38, 334 P.2d 508, 510-11 (1959).
[¶26] The judgment of the district court should be and hereby is affirmed.
1 Although the judgment appealed here was entered in the same case where the Cheyenne Housing Authority had, earlier, obtained summary judgment, neither party designated any portion of those earlier proceedings for transmission to this court. We characterize | 3,819 |
This is to invite you to the Belvedere Benevolent Association annual fundraising dinner.
While the economy may have improved this unfortunately is not true for everyone and there are still fellow Bel<|fim_middle|> and we are asking for your support for this event.
The fundraising dinner will be held in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club on Thursday March 15th at 7pm.
There are some formalities on the night but we intend to progress these in a swift business-like manner so that people have sufficient time to reminisce and socialise with fellow past pupils.
I do appreciate that the date may not suit you but I would still ask that you if you cannot attend on the night that you might consider making a donation to this worthy cause.
Any contributions would be greatly appreciated and can be sent care of the treasurer John Darby c/o the College..
It would be great to see you at the dinner and would ask that if you are considering attending the event that you advise Ciara Banks, the Union secretary belvedereunion@belvederecollege.ie so that we can manage the numbers for catering purposes. | vederians who need our assistance. At the time of writing our finances are as usual stretched | 19 |
Game of Thrones' Most Powerful Story Was the One We Told Ourselves
We used politics to justify its importance, then shaped our politics around it.
By Willa Paskin
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by HBO.
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As I write this, the mass phenomenon known as Game of Thrones has been over for a little more than a week, but it's already zooming out of the cultural rearview mirror like a rocket-launched giant. Before it slips completely out of view and becomes yesterday's obsession, I want to think about why it so recently seemed to blot out the whole horizon. Why did a sprawling fantasy series loosely inspired by a 15th-century British conflict—plus dragons!—become the It Show in a moment of It Show extinction? Why was Game of Thrones Game of Thrones? There isn't just one answer to this question, but like a dogged player of Trivial Pursuit, I want to try to assemble the pieces of the pie.
When Game of Thrones premiered in 2011, the antihero was on his way out, though dawdling about it. Tony Soprano had been off the air for years, and Walter White and Don Draper would soon join him, but the copycat biz was booming. Prestige TV has always encompassed a hodgepodge of styles—gangster tales, cops and robbers, drug sagas, Westerns—with some thematic and structural similarities: a male antihero, sex, violence, moral ambiguity, darkness (both literal and figurative), surprise, an alienating relationship to the audience, generalized machismo, an auteur. By the early 2010s these elements were being slavishly imitated, and TV was full of rote antihero fare, as trendy as then-trendy cupcake shops, but with a grimmer color palate.
Game of Thrones was not like these shows in one very obvious way. It was set in a pre-technological, fictitious land, full of kings, dragons and alternaetive spellings. But in so many other ways, it fit right in. Notoriously expensive, plainly ambitious, obviously macho (even with all its female characters), it both delivered and upended fantasy genre conventions—and subverting genre conventions is itself a convention of prestige TV. Game of Thrones' fantasy elements helped it remix tired TV tropes, even as the series' prestige bona fides helped it overcome the undercurrent of geekiness that has long dogged even the most popular fantasy works. It wasn't Middle Earth; it was HBO.
But Game of Thrones was a Trojan horse, a polished dramatic series smuggling swords and linebacker furs into the time slot once occupied by The Sopranos. The fantasy elements in the show's belly were instrumental to its success. The readers of George R.R. Martin's books acted as the series' hype men, framing the project as uniquely ambitious—the wonk's fantasy novel, the Wire of mediaeval epics, realpolitik storytelling, the cynic's quest narrative—long before the show could fully communicate any of that for itself. The details in the books' thousands of pages also enabled Game of Thrones to industrialize, with the help of Twitter and Reddit, the kind of granular theorizing first performed on Lost.
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Game of Thrones was the ideal text on which to practice and then perfect a new sort<|fim_middle|> shows as the most reliable mass-buzz format of the moment.
In addition to prestige and puzzle TV, Game of Thrones was also a part of a third trend: the political show, although that was not apparent when it first premiered. It arrived around the same time as Homeland, The Americans, the first season of Parks and Recreation, House of Cards, Scandal, and Veep, a group of series that deposited the antihero, and increasingly the antiheroine, into explicitly political settings. All of these shows hewed, in some ways, closer to reality than Game of Thrones—they were set in America, for one thing—but they also skewed further from prestige TV conventions, simply by being comedies or melodramas or just about women. In its early seasons, Game of Thrones seemed more like The Walking Dead, another hugely popular series about the disintegration of civil society and the zombie threat, than any of these political series—but then our politics intervened, turning the show into a scrim upon which, it sometimes seemed, every real-world crisis could and would be projected.
Like a Three-Eyed Raven Game of Thrones had one eye on the past, in that it was decked out in the respectable-making duds of prestige TV; one on the future, in that it jump-started a whole new way of relating to TV as a multimedia game experience and web-traffic jackpot; and one on the present, a labile text constantly being read into our political moment.
From the start, the show had inspired heady questions and conversations. What makes a good leader? What holds a society together? Is moral rectitude a bad strategy? These were not, in the context of the show, simply theoretical queries, but ones that had a direct bearing on the fate of the show's protagonists. From the beginning, there were viewers who relished diving into the particularly arcane details of, say, the Iron Bank's fiscal policy or the Targaryen family tree, but one of the distinguishing features and geeky pleasures of watching this particular dynastic soap opera was that even viewers who were in it just for the story, the dragons, the stunning reversals—in it because it was an epic fantasy show!—could find themselves touching on larger questions simply because they wanted to understand why, exactly, Ned Stark had lost his head.
But Game of Thrones' big questions took on a whole new level of urgency as Donald Trump became president. The show's concerns became preposterously relevant, as did its vision of a society riven by tribal affiliations and distrust. That its themes and predicaments, that the autocratic impulses it had not only chronicled but made appealing to so many viewers, were suddenly so relevant gave it a burst of dippy, prognosticating power. A show that had, during Barack Obama's tenure, seemed a little out of step with the times suddenly knew exactly what time it was. Our desire to understand what had occurred in the real world—why? How?—was so great that we latched on to anything potentially instructive. If Game of Thrones knew we would get here, could its details, interpreted in the right way, tell us where we were going next?
Season 6 of the series, the first to regularly top 25 million total viewers, ended just weeks before the Republican National Convention. It was also the season that finally outpaced Martin's source material. The series was off book and, so it seemed, was America. It was at this point that Game of Thrones and the Game of Thrones industrial-entertainment complex entered its maximalist phase, in which the show and the discourse around it became not only omnipresent and traffic-hoovering but increasingly impassioned and political. There remained different ways to engage with the show—as a puzzle, as a ripping yarn about character, as a political allegory—but the first and the third, in particular, ratcheted up in intensity. The speculation about what would happen next got more prolific, intricate, and scholarly, while thinking about the show's political arrangements began to take on a different kind of vibration. Theorizing about how Game of Thrones might handle an existential threat like an approaching zombie horde stopped being just an intriguing thought experiment and took on a sort of hopeful shimmer. Might the series offer us a recommendation for (depending on your ideological orientation) stabilizing climate change or protecting our national borders?
Politicians began to drape themselves in the series' imagery, aggrandizing the show by using it as a tool of politicking. Donald Trump cast himself as the Night King, a bit of incoherent propaganda that effectively associated him with something extremely popular, while bringing the show further into the realm of real-world politics. Each reading of Game of Thrones that saw in it parallels to nuclear strategy, global warming, tyranny, gender politics, Trump, Vietnam, Iraq, and so on—as insightful as many of those parallels were—did so as well. By the final season, when Elizabeth Warren was (prematurely) praising Dany as the long-time-coming female leader we really need, an episode or two before she turned out to be a war criminal, politicians and GoT were feeding off each other in nonsensical ways that nonetheless buoyed both.
That politicians wanted to be associated with Game of Thrones couldn't make more sense: It's hugely popular! It's relatable! It's cool! But in using Game of Thrones to lighten themselves up, they lent a gravitas to the show. Game of Thrones exists in a moment when the heinous political environment makes pop culture a genuine escape, but that escape can feel so frivolous that pop culture is constantly trying to justify itself in political terms. Game of Thrones was entertaining and escapist, while permitting us to feel that we weren't quite escaping. At this particular moment, that is a beguiling combination.
One knock-on effect of the fragmentation of the entertainment monoculture is that what we're left with is politics: It's the story—even though it's not just a story—that everyone is following, and it pulls everything into its tractor beam. Game of Thrones, over its run, tracked a shift in prestige TV's center from the antihero show, with its aesthetic and moral innovations, to the political show—not necessarily a show about politics but a show that is doing political work or can be leveraged for political uses. Game of Thrones—absurdly, given the racial makeup of its cast—came to exist on a continuum with shows that, by expanding diversity and representation on television, are understood to be political because of their larger goals and concerns. Unlike these series, Game of Thrones did not have grand ambitions to change how the entertainment system operates (unless it's to ensure we'll be living with expensive GoT knockoffs for the next five years). It's "work," if you can call it that, was to make us feel that in thinking so much about it, a fiction, we were studying the real world.
The ending of the show put some of those fevered political readings in their place.
The final stretch of episodes, like all the ones that came before, can be read in all sorts of relevant ways—what does Dany's razing of King's Landing say about U.S. foreign policy?—but in the final 40 minutes, the series sidestepped the opportunity to draw some grandiose conclusion about Who We Are and Where We Are Going, just as it had previously declined to give us a recommendation on what to do about existential threats. (Do we have an Arya to stab climate change in the heart?) It didn't even take the opportunity to be grand and grandiose. In sprinting through all the negotiations that would finally put a winner on the Iron Throne, it accentuated its own fictitiousness: It was a story, and, it was getting late, and it had to end. "There's nothing more powerful than a story," Tyrion groaningly explained, as he selected the future king. But Game of Thrones had spent years big-footing the zeitgeist because of all the ways it was read as more than just a story—until, suddenly, it wasn't anymore.
Game of Thrones HBO TV | of extra-textual relationship to TV. Theorizing about the show, which increased season over season, was so dense that it trickled out to viewers who weren't reading the books at all but learned of fan theories as they were explicated on the internet or repeated over the watercooler. A certain degree of sleuthing—be it by osmosis, Wikipedia, or accidental spoiling—became part of the Game of Throne experience, just as it is a part of the robust genre Game of Thrones helped spawn: puzzle TV, which includes shows like Westworld, Stranger Things, Mr. Robot, and Making a Murderer, and has followed antihero | 136 |
Pure Science: An Old Name with Some New Ways of Thinking
Shreyas Vissapragada
Shreyas Vissapragada (CC '17) is majoring in Astrophysics with a concentration in either Computer Science or Chemistry. He is originally from Aurora, Illinois, and is very active with Columbia University Quiz Bowl. Additionally, Shreyas is a member of the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee and he is interested in academic research on campus. In the future, he hopes to become a professor, a science writer, or a NASA researcher.
"Shall our country be contented to stand by, while other countries lead in the race?"
-H.A. Rowland, "A Plea For Pure Science" (1883)
Over a hundred years ago, in the second-ever issue of Science, H.A. Rowland made an impassioned plea on behalf of his field. But he did not define his field with specificity, as scientists usually do—he did not identify as an astronomer, or a chemist, or a physicist. Instead, he identified himself with "pure science": a science, he argued, that was done purely for the sake of learning about the world in which we live (Rowland 242). In its formative stages, pure science was met with heavy opposition. In the 1850s, the influential Senator Stephen A. Douglass, for instance, heavily promoted research into agricultural technology over electromagnetism and optics (Trigilio). So, in the face of arguments for the practical, for the realistic, for<|fim_middle|>, Present, and Future of NASA – U. S. Senate Testimony." (Date 3/7/2012). HaydenPlanetarium.com. N.p. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
Wells, Jane. "Elon Musk on Why SpaceX Has the Right Stuff to Win the Space Race." CNBC.com. N. p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. | the applied, Rowland published a poignant defense of the quixotic. Incredibly, Rowland's hundred-year-old rhetoric echoes across generations—political speeches still rally around getting America "back to the top" of Rowland's implied race of scientific education and research.
Modern as Rowland's ideas may sound, they are outdated, and so too is the status quo understanding of scientific research in the United States today. The idea of science research as a "race" has been a myth for quite some time; scientists have worked together across borders for years and years to learn more about the world. South Korea might always be a step ahead of America in whatever science ranking system the media chooses to publicize, but the reality of science research is that South Koreans and Americans work together in labs and groups quite frequently. And just as this collaboration spans physical space, it spans time as well. As Neil deGrasse Tyson, the popular astrophysicist, put it in COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey, "Science is a cooperative enterprise, spanning the generations. It's the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher, a community of minds reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars" (Tyson). The nature of science has changed: it isn't competitive; it's collaborative.
The nature of pure science embodies this distinction. Whereas applied scientists must deal with patents, copyrights, and the business of the products they eventually create, all of which inevitably introduces some competition, pure science is almost totally collaborative. And while the method by which pure science researchers obtain money to perform their work—the dreaded grant application process—can be competitive at times, the science itself is not done to push one group of people ahead of the other. It's done to learn more about the world. Pure science as a research field was born against strong opposition, with very few people like Rowland to defend it; yet it grew into a collaborative field across nations that has produced the most brilliant minds of our time and the most novel ways in which we consider our universe.
But this glorious bastion of knowledge and understanding is in danger of being lost—not only in America, but also across the world. The existence of pure science has been under threat from politicians and businessmen almost since its disengagement from engineering and applied science, but never before have these threats warranted extinction. And yet, that's exactly what's happening: new attitudes towards pure science, motivated by politics and economics, have driven pure science to the boundary of a bleak future. And to understand the extent of this dystopian fate, one need only look to the northern border.
Many Canadian politicians believe that the era of pure science has come to a close, with Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, even going so far as to state that "the day is past when a researcher could hit a home run simply by publishing a paper on some new discovery" (qtd. in Semeniuk). Ironically, announcements about the Higgs boson, the Planck satellite, and cosmic inflation, announcements which began just as papers on new discoveries, have been all over the news in the past two years alone. Clearly, the day is not past.
But unfortunately, Canadian politicians seem to pay no heed to science news. Their government has shifted its focus on science research, only providing funding to specific applied science areas and effectively leaving pure science for dead. The current situation in Canada has painted an austere future for pure science. The new mindset of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is perhaps best explained by one of the foremost advocates for science within the Canadian Parliament, Kennedy Stewart: "They see [pure science] as a kind of cash cow which is taking up a lot of money in Canada, and it's not really generating short-term economic benefit, so they think it has to be radically restructured. […] It's an ill-conceived move" (qtd. in Mancini).
To the Canadian government, "short-term economic benefits" are the only gains to be made from science—nothing more. Indeed, Canada's newfound focus on "research in areas that are in the national interest from a social and economic perspective" shows exactly what they think science should be: a financial asset (qtd. in Mancini). And this mindset is not at all limited to the Canadian government. When I, a first-year student studying chemistry and astrophysics at Columbia, return from my sheltered world of New York City academia to my decidedly non-academic household, I am quickly reminded that "You want to be a…researcher…why not an engineer?" is a question I can expect once a week. At a large research university, no one seriously questions the motivations behind pure research, and certainly no one pushes for someone to radically rethink their field of study solely because it is pure. The motivations behind the question I must answer back home and behind Canada's new science policy are largely the same: they stem from the assumption that pure science does not contribute as much as applied science—or at all, for that matter. This status quo mindset is what threatens the continued study of pure science today.
To conserve something that is threatened by societal preconception, we must radically rethink the status quo. So goes the argument made by William Cronon in his environmentalist masterpiece, "The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." In it, he argues that the public perception of wilderness is so flawed that it prevents environmentalism from achieving its goal of conservation. Rather than defining ourselves as separate from the wilderness, he claims, we must define ourselves with the wilderness. Rather than conserving some "other" entity, we must conserve something with which we coexist. A similar rationale can be used to understand how societal perceptions must change to conserve pure science. As with Cronon's "wilderness," the current perception of pure science is that of an "other"—specifically, that it is something non-human that we use to earn human profit or to benefit human society in some way. This conception of pure science is very much akin to the idea of wilderness as a "pristine sanctuary" that exists only to give humanity access to the untainted (Cronon 7).
But wilderness, as Cronon argues, is not a pristine sanctuary; "instead, it is a product of that civilization" which we fear will "taint" it (Cronon 7). In the same way, to rethink pure science, we must recognize that pure science is not simply an asset or a liability that exists for our gain. It is a collection of fields that captivate the imaginations of the least curious of children and the most brilliant of researchers. It is a mode of thinking that continues to motivate applied science today. And it is done independent of the pockets of corporations; it is done for the sake of learning about the world, of explaining and comprehending the beauty of the universe. Pure science, like Cronon's wilderness, is not distinct from us—it is us. Our discovery of subatomic structure was not made with economics in mind; it was made to explain the particles that make us. When pure science is misunderstood as a financial liability, it holds no importance to Harper and his business-minded model for Canadian growth. But pure science is not about business. It is science done for the sake of understanding our world and ourselves, and the worth in that understanding is incompatible with the scales of economic success so often used to judge how much things matter.
At the same time, incredibly, pure science does more than just fostering this understanding. It contributes to the financial growth of a nation just as much as it contributes to the intellectual growth. In his testimony presented to the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Tyson poignantly made this argument in a defense of the pure science of a national space program:
Epic space adventures plant seeds of economic growth, because doing what's never been done before is intellectually seductive (whether deemed practical or not), and innovation follows, just as day follows night. When you innovate, you lead the world, you keep your jobs, and concerns over tariffs and trade imbalances evaporate. The call for this adventure would echo loudly across society and down the educational pipeline. (Tyson)
Pure science not only promotes long-term economic growth (which is something that Canada will surely lack if it continues to eschew pure science in its entirety), but does so by inspiring the populace to grow together as an intellectual community—as a community of "innovators," in Tyson's words.
Tyson's comments on the worth of pure science are not merely the philosophical musings of an emotional astrophysicist; rather, they are empirical, backed up by the history of the Space Race. One of the most well-studied figures in the history of pure science was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry. Henry frequently went head-to-head with the previously mentioned Stephen A. Douglass regarding the worth of pure sciences like electromagnetism and optics (Trigilio). While Douglass championed the seemingly more utilitarian agricultural engineering, Henry was able to convince one of his most important followers to learn all that he could about electromagnetism and pure science—and that follower, Alexander Graham Bell, went on to create the first telephone. The science and technology of electromagnetics would go on to become a hugely important part of intellectual revolutions in America; now, it's impossible to find products that aren't built around the functionality of a computer, which, at the core of its hardware, is based on electromagnetic systems. Even the agricultural technology championed by Douglass has come to depend on computerized processes to optimize output.
My aim is not to dismiss engineering—which was indeed necessary to build new technologies like the telephone and computer, and is still necessary today—but to exalt the pure science that created the intellectual space from which all that success derived. The historical anecdote highlights the immensely important role that pure science has played in the growth of American society—intellectually and, in the long run, financially. History does not side with Harper's model of a future without pure science.
In the United States, a new understanding of pure science is of the utmost importance. America is at a crossroads when it comes to science. Historically, America has left her mark on the most pivotal pure science developments of the last few centuries—from the theorization of new systems of kinetics governing chemical reactions to the theorization (and discovery) of new subatomic particles. These discoveries have come from a variety of locations: private universities across the country, national laboratories such as Fermilab and Brookhaven, even private research firms. Regardless of the location, the United States has been intimately involved in funding and perpetuating pure science research. No research—whether through a private or public organization—could sustain itself without the funding of the National Science Foundation. But recent developments in American science policy and public perception have threatened the country's involvement in pure science to an extent almost rivaling Canada. This is not dangerous because it puts us at the bottom of some hypothetical "science race" between countries; it is dangerous because it removes a crucial collaborator in the global conversation that pure science has become. To understand the extent to which America is being pulled out of the global scientific conversation, we must consider perhaps the most threatened scientific agency that our government has to offer: NASA.
Space science is decidedly pure: it does not seek to offer immediate economic benefit (though it has done so many times—a fact that will be addressed later), and it is done primarily to understand more about the universe. NASA, then, is certainly an organization of pure science—but it's a dying one. NASA has been on a steady decline for years, its fate championed by Michael Gough, author of the 1997 Cato Institute white paper "Don't Lavish Funds on NASA." In the article, Gough urges the government to cut funding to NASA, citing the increasing privatization of science and the high risks without reward of a manned space program as two main reasons to do so (Gough). It's worth noting that the Cato Institute is decidedly Libertarian, and thus holds the view that the government shouldn't really play a role in anything. But it's also worth noting that its calls to action have effectively been realized. Calls for the privatization of science funding have only gotten stronger, and NASA's budget has fallen to about half of what it was in 1997.
But what else has happened since 1997? For one, NASA's output has lessened significantly. And why wouldn't it? As funding decreases, so too should output. This basic consequence is something that Gough understood, but his predicted solution, privatization, has not occurred. Elon Musk's company SpaceX, the frontrunner in the private space industry, has grown over the last decade to the point that it is now valued at over a billion dollars (Wells), yet its research has not amounted to a fundamentally new understanding of rocket science. Furthermore, much of the private space industry (including SpaceX) operates on governmental contracts provided by NASA itself (Stenovec). The private space sector heralded by Gough as the solution to the space science funding problem hasn't amounted to much, and, furthermore, is still inextricably linked to NASA. If NASA, the central cog that drives both governmental and private innovation, loses funding and fails, the American presence in astronomical research will fade into nothingness.
And yet, much of the public still supports Gough's views. Debate.org recently asked the public, "Should America continue spending money on NASA?", and the rationales given for the many "No" votes are telling. Importantly, lurking behind the "No" answers is most often the statement that we cannot afford NASA, or that it doesn't produce tangible benefits to society. First, this statement is guilty of misinformation: NASA, in fact, only takes up a negligible 0.5% of the national budget (Tyson). But more than misinformation, this argument reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of NASA and the benefits that it provides. To conserve NASA's funding, as with the Crononian conservation of pure wilderness, this perception must change.
Changing this perception requires a fundamental understanding of the facts, and the facts are simple. NASA is certainly a microcosm of pure science in America—it is an organization based first and foremost on the principle of research for the sake of understanding and learning—but it has had an incredible amount of side impacts, from the education of the American public to spinoff products that have bolstered the American economy. NASA not only hosts many different space exploration and research projects, ranging from theoretical astrophysics research on pulsars to the practicalities of actually sending humans into space, but also plays a pivotal role in both inspiring America's youth and granting them access to tools that will help fulfill that inspiration. And while NASA does all of these things with the genuine purpose of helping the world learn more about the universe in which we live, one of the nicer side effects is that technological spinoffs of NASA's research can—according to one conservative estimate in Nature—multiply the money put into the program by a factor of at least two: every dollar put into NASA has historically returned, on average, around two dollars and ten cents (Bezdek and Wendling 106). While the short-term economic benefits of NASA are admittedly small, the long-term benefits are verifiably enormous.
The critique is that we cannot afford NASA, but the reality is that no one can put a price tag on that kind of research, that kind of education, that kind of intellectual inspiration that drives innovation for generations to come. Just as pure science has worth both in the understanding that research brings and in the long-term financial stability that comes with it, NASA drives American society toward a greater state of knowing while simultaneously paving a road to a more educated, economically secure future.
This trend of pure science uncovering knowledge while providing economic and intellectual security is the reason why, fifty or a hundred years down the line, Canada will not be able to realize the long-term economic benefits of pure science while any other country currently invested in that research will; instead, it will realize the folly of Harper's business-minded science regime so many years before. The trend is exemplified by how nineteenth century research into electromagnetism produced incredible new markets and technologies and economies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. And it's a trend that American lawmakers must understand both for the sake of the continued existence of pure science and for the sake of the economic vitality of our nation.
Science and society have always been at odds with each other; as John F. Kennedy once said, "Scientists alone can establish the objectives of their research, but society, in extending support to science, must take account of its own needs" (Kennedy). But when we redefine pure science as an intellectual restoration of the creativity and vitality of the human spirit as well as a serendipitous economic investment with a guaranteed payoff, we bridge the gap between science and society. We solve the age-old question of why we should choose to fund this endeavor at all. Policymakers must understand and accept a refined definition of pure science in the context of society to ensure the intellectual progress of our society as a whole. When we recognize that we perform pure science to understand our surroundings and ourselves, that fiscal gain is not an end goal but a fortunate consequence of this important field of research, we can transform our nation—as Tyson so eloquently put it in his Congressional address—"from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow."
Bezdek, Roger H., and Robert M. Wendling. "Sharing Out NASA's Spoils." Nature 355 (1992): 105–106. Print.
Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." Environmental History 1.1 (1996): 7–28. Print.
Gough, Michael. "Don't Lavish Funds on NASA." Cato Institute. Text. N. p., 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Greenberg, Daniel S. The Politics of Pure Science. New York: New American Library, 1968. Print.
Kennedy, John F. "Address at the Anniversary Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences." October 22, 1963. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9488. 11 Nov. 2014.
Mancini, Melissa. "Science Cuts: Ottawa Views Pure Science As 'Cash Cow,' Critics Say." The Huffington Post Canada. N. p., 7 May 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Rowland, H. A. "A Plea for Pure Science." Science 2.29 (1883): 242–250. Print.
Semeniuk, Barrie. "Research Council's Makeover Leaves Canadian Industry Setting the Agenda." The Globe and Mail. News. N. p., 7 May 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
"Should America Continue Spending Money on NASA?" Debate.org. N. p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Stenovec, Timothy. "NASA Awards Boeing, SpaceX & Sierra Nevada Corp. With Contracts For Space Shuttle Replacements." Huffington Post. N. p., 3 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Trigilio, Merri Lisa. "A Smithsonian Dilemma: Pure Scientific Research, 'A Thousand Applications,' or Both? – O Say Can You See?" N. p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Tyson, Neil deGrasse. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. FOX Network, 9 Mar. 2014. Television. r. 2014.
—— "Past | 4,189 |
My first opportunity to hear Jordan Danielsen play was at Creekside Vineyards last year on the day of<|fim_middle|> as fast as I'd like to but I know a thing or two about perseverance." Watch for more videos and more recording. With all of the songs already written, he's in presentation mode now.
Jordan will have copies of Old Soul available at all of his upcoming shows. This week, you can catch him at 11th Street Precinct Thursday night, Wide River Winery in LeClaire fro 5-8 on Friday and in Stockton, IL on Saturday. | my photo exhibit. His original music at that time seemed diverse – a little rock, a little roots. With the release of his new CD, Old Soul, I now understand that diversity.
Recorded with Rob Cimmarusti at Real Trax recording in Davenport, Iowa, Danielsen's first CD, Night Alone in the City, is a rock/alternative album. He refers to it as his party album, with a horn section and electric guitars. "He (Cimmarusti) did a great job, I miss working with him" says Danielsen.
Old Soul is significantly different from its predecessor. With a genre change to a sound that is more Americana, it harnesses the recording prowess of Jordan's longtime friend and bandmate, Dustin Cobb of Joy Avenue Media in Bettendorf. Not only was the production different, but the horns and electric guitars were replaced by Ben Lorentzen on violin and Nick Vasquez on piano and organ.
A participant in Cobb's Monday night collaboration sessions at Joy Avenue, Danielsen knew when his first two songs done in that format went so well he wanted to create an entire album that way. The initial songs in that format were Father of Water and Rainy Days are Good Days for Playing Sad, Sad Songs .
With a planned release in Spring 2014, the original album title was to be Southbound in the Springtime. Danielsen likes to stick with a theme and let the songs in an album work together to tell a story. With several travel tunes, he thought the travel theme would work well – until the artwork moved him in the direction of Old Soul. The look of old ragtime art has always been a favorite, and this theme worked as well.
Danielsen performs 3-6 times per week, earning the status of regional artist. He is striving to make that region bigger and it gets better every year. He would like to get music from Old Soul out there as much as possible, on as many sites, soundtracks, and avenues available. He is the ultimate DIY musician, not only writing, playing and singing. He is also his own booking agent, administrator, and tour director, doing his own PR and more. "Since it's only me doing everything it doesn't always happen | 463 |
Documentation of the effectiveness of water fluoridation has been noted in scientific literature<|fim_middle|>oride protects teeth against decay in two ways," says PDA member Dr. Alicia Risner-Bauman, who serves on the ADA Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention and the Board of Directors of the PA Coalition for Oral Health. "In the tooth structure as the teeth are forming, and in the mouth of children and adults."
"Fluoride has been shown to be incorporated into the developing tooth structure, making the tooth stronger and less prone to decay or cavities," Dr. Bauman added. "When fluoride comes in contact with the tooth enamel, the fluoride ion (molecule) can bind with the tooth enamel and promote remineralization, the strengthening of weakened tooth structure."
Currently, only 54 percent of Pennsylvanians are receiving optimally fluoridated water, with rural communities missing the benefits the most. People who live in these areas are in need of basic oral health care. Fifty-one percent of rural children receive regular dental services, compared to 61 percent of urban children. Community water fluoridation is needed to help improve the oral health and lives of all residents who live in rural Pennsylvania.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention proclaimed community water fluoridation as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. It is one public health program that actually saves money. The average cost for optimally fluoridating a public water supply is less than the cost of one dental filling. For every dollar invested in fluoridation, a person saves $38 in dental treatment costs. Fluoridation also would save money in the state Medicaid budget.
Dr. Bauman says she sees the ravages of dental decay every day.
"I have treated children and adults who have had access to toothpaste, fluoride supplements and dentally applied fluoride. Unfortunately, these patients have well water or public water that does not have fluoride occurring naturally. Even with access to the other fluoride sources, they still have cavities. Without exposure to water fluoridation, these patients suffer from pain and infection every day, causing loss of time in school, loss of time at work. If we can provide something as simple as a naturally occurring mineral in the drinking water for a portion of the population to help prevent this unnecessary suffering, why would we not?"
Rob Pugliese is director of communications for the Pennsylvania Dental Association. | for more than 70 years. The American Dental Association has stated that even before the first community fluoridation program began in 1945, data from the 1930s and 1940s revealed 50 to 60 percent lower tooth decay rates in children consuming naturally occurring, optimally fluoridated water compared to children consuming fluoride-deficient water.
Extensive research continues to indicate water fluoridation is one of the most effective public health measures in history. It has maintained its effectiveness of reducing tooth decay by at least 25 percent in adults and children, even during an era of wide availability of fluoride from other sources, such as fluoride toothpaste.
The first step to ensuring all Pennsylvanians have preventive dental care is to fluoridate our public water systems. Adding fluoride to the drinking water ensures that everyone, regardless of age or income, receives valuable health benefits.
"Flu | 193 |
at home, and our heart to<|fim_middle|>. This ministry not only builds friendships, but gives each woman the opportunity to use their gifts and abilities to reach out to those around them.
Band of Brothers is a ministry to encourage men to grow in their faith in Christ, to develop and strengthen friendships with other men and to provide opportunities to serve our church and reach our community and world for Christ.
© Church on the Move Denver. All rights reserved. | serve you will be evident when you walk through the door.
To reach out with the love of God.
To empower those who believe in Jesus to live victorious in everyday life.
To build strong families and teach them how to raise champion children.
designed to help you and your family grow spiritually and build lasting friendships.
Church On The Move believes in ministering to the needs of every age group, including our little members.
The Outlet offers young adults and young married couples the opportunity to build real friendships. Fellowships, Bible studies, bowling, dinner, concerts, shows, sporting events and outreach are just a few of the many events throughout the year.
Women Doing Life reaches out to women in all areas of life and empowers them to live for God | 150 |
Jennifer Garner is full of surprises. I can't say I was expecting her to be the hilarious Instagram video creator that she is, or for her to team up with Jill Biden to promote vaccinations in West Virginia. One thing slightly more routine? For Garner to be transparent as a window about the specifics of her beauty routine — and while her adoration for<|fim_middle|>ing skin with anti-aging benefits. Speaking to Neutrogena's new Rapid Firming Peptide Contour Lift Face Cream, Garner says, "It just gives the skin a real youthful vibrancy, and a kind of bounce to it."
The Neutrogena moisturizer is part of the brand's new firming collagen and peptide-centered line, reliant on a dermatologist-developed micropeptide that it claims can deeply penetrate skin to counter depleted collagen and elasticity. For background, peptide products based on enhancing collagen are an ongoing skincare trend; Jennifer Aniston and Kourtney Kardashian advocate for ingesting collagen and tons of Amazon's best-selling skin products revolve around the ingredient, including serums that have skyrocketed in popularity. | Neutrogena skin care is well-known, she says the brand's most recent addition is making all the difference.
According to an interview with PEOPLE published this week, the pep in Garner's step — and skin — is thanks to a recent Neutrogena release focused on firm | 57 |
A communications company says a subcontractor was working "on site<|fim_middle|> other details. The company said "many questions" remain and it's cooperating with investigators.
Bear didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.
The blast Tuesday killed firefighter Cory Barr and devastated the city's downtown area. Authorities have said a leak from a natural gas main struck by a contractor preceded the blast. | " before an explosion that killed a Wisconsin firefighter this week.
MADISON – A communications company says a subcontractor was working "on site" before an explosion that killed a Wisconsin firefighter this week. But it wasn't immediately clear if the subcontractor was responsible for breaking a gas main ahead of the blast.
Verizon Wireless said Thursday it had contracted with Kansas-based Bear Communications for a fiber project in Sun Prairie, a Madison suburb.
Bear said in a statement to WISC-TV that its subcontractor was working "on site" but gave no | 109 |
La Colonna dell'Immacolata è un monumento di Palermo posto in Piazza San Domenico nel quartiere La Loggia.
Storia
La colonna venne edificata nel 1728 per riempire la piazza che risultava essere molto spoglia in concomitanza ai lavori per il rifacimento della facciata della chiesa di San Domenico. Il monumento è composto da una grande base marmorea sormontata da un'alta colonna, sempre marmorea, in cima alla quale è presente la statua dell'Immacolata in bronzo, l'intera struttura progettata nel 1724 da Tommaso Maria Napoli e costruita da Giovanni Amico. Il progetto originale prevedeva il corpo della colonna monolitica molto più allungato, i Padri Domenicani disposero un'altezza tale da rendere visibile la statua della Vergine dall'altare maggiore durante l'ufficio delle sacre funzioni.
Lo stile della struttura è tipicamente barocco ed oltre alla colonna troviamo le statue di Papa Pio IX e Papa Pio XII dello scultore Sgarlata, poste per volontà del Cardinale Arcivescovo di Palermo Sua Ecc. Rev.ma Ernesto Ruffini il 13 Ottobre 1954, anch'esse in bronzo, poste alla base della colonna. Ai piedi dell'intero altare troviamo una scalinata in pietra di Billiemi di forma quadrata ad ogni estremità della quale troviamo statue marmoree che raffigurano angeli con le ali. L'intera opera è chiusa da una cancellata protettiva.
Sui piedistalli anticamente erano alloggiate le statue dei sovrani committenti dell'opera: Carlo VI d'Asbur<|fim_middle|> Roma, solo col dogma dell'Immacolata Concezione, stabilito dalla Chiesa cattolica nel 1854 il monumento diventa oggetto di culto. Il 13 ottobre 1954, in occasione del Congresso Mariano della Sicilia, per iniziativa del cardinale Ernesto Ruffini, intorno alla grande statua della Madonna istituisce "l'infiorata", alla stessa stregua delle manifestazioni Romane, in Piazza di Spagna.
La consuetudine si ripete l'8 dicembre di ogni anno, festa dell'Immacolata Concezione, attorno al cui monumento la popolazione di Palermo depone con entusiasmo e fede omaggi floreali, alcuni dei quali vengono posti dai pompieri sulla sommità, ai piedi della Madonna. Analoghe celebrazioni presso la stupenda Guglia dell'Immacolata in Piazza del Gesù Nuovo a Napoli in Spaccanapoli a poche centinaia di metri dalla chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore e la guglia di San Domenico. Palermo e Napoli, capitali dello stesso regno legate a filo doppio per secoli dalle stesse vicende politiche, economiche, sociali che vantano uno straordinario potenziale storico, artistico, culturale, di tradizioni e di costumi dell'intero centro del bacino del Mediterraneo.
Note
Voci correlate
Piazza San Domenico
Chiesa di San Domenico (Palermo)
Chiesa dell'Immacolata Concezione al Capo
Altri progetti
Monumenti di Palermo
I
Immacolata Concezione | go e della moglie Elisabetta Cristina di Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, opere dello scultore Giovanni Battista Ragusa autore anche della statua dellImmacolata Concezione che troneggia sull'apice della colonna a lei dedicata e dellArcangelo Michele raffigurato nell'atto di sguainare la spada. Intorno allo zoccolo sono presenti delle epigrafi e disposte ai vertici di un quadrilatero, le statue di altri tre Arcangeli: Gabriele, Raffaele, Uriele, opere degli scultori Vincenzo Vitagliano, Giacomo Vitagliano e di Giuseppe Marino. Sotto la Corona Borbonica nel 1750 le statue furono sostituite con le immagini di Carlo III di Spagna e della moglie Maria Amalia di Sassonia, opere di Procopio Serpotta. Con la Rivoluzione siciliana del 1848 furono fuse per ricavarne cannoni. Il 13 ottobre 1954, in occasione del Congresso Mariano della Sicilia, rimpiazzate per iniziativa del cardinale Ernesto Ruffini, dalle statue bronzee di Papa Pio IX e di Papa Pio XII opere di Filippo Sgarlata.
Restauro
Nel corso degli anni per la mancata manutenzione, la colonna ha attraversato uno stato d'abbandono oltre al naturale deterioramento del tempo, presentando crepe più o meno profonde che hanno causato l'indebolimento della stessa.
Di seguito nel dicembre 2012, l'amministrazione comunale di Palermo ha dato il via al totale restauro, grazie alla segnalazione del movimento attivista cittadino "Azione Siciliana".
Curiosità
Benché la costruzione sia anteriore all'omonima Colonna dell'Immacolata a | 446 |
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality<|fim_middle|> here.
You can also find more augmented reality and virtual reality teaching resources from TeachThought. | are two tools that, for whatever reason, don't seem to generate the kind of buzz they deserve.
In Why Virtual Reality Is So Important For Education, Terry Heick explained the context for Augmented and Virtual Reality in the classroom.
Virtual reality is a kind of digital reality–a way of using technology to create environments designed for expressly human interaction. This is, of course, different than our physical environment. We are human beings, and human beings are simply one organism functioning interdependently with literally countless other living things. The world isn't designed expressly for us, which is a matter of theological and metaphysical contemplation really. But for context here, it makes sense because it underscores one of the underpinning draws of virtual reality: Through the use of digital technology, virtual realities can be designed precisely for human interaction for very specific reasons to create experiences not otherwise possible.
Google Expeditions is simply a collection of Augmented and Virtual Reality experiences and 'field trips' shared by Google–in this case, as a spreadsheet. Some of the 'expeditions' are more well-supported than others (with lessons plans and supporting links and background), but here in the early days of AR/VR classroom adoption, it is a kind of motherlode of material for teachers and students willing to navigate some of the missing parts and general lack of refinement.
If the embed doesn't work, you can find the full list | 285 |
Art<|fim_middle|> Walking Committee;
David Bedford - re-elected onto the Cross Country Committee; and
Bridget Cushen - re-elected onto the Masters Committee. | cile 37
You are here » Home » Media » News » News Archive - Pre-2011 » August 2007 » Article 34
Warner welcomes Coe news
UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner today congratulated Lord Sebastian Coe on his election as a Vice President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Mr Warner said Lord Coe's new role as one of four Vice Presidents would give British athletics a greater voice on the international stage.
He said: "We are delighted by Seb's appointment as it strengthens Great Britain and Northern Ireland's position in the world governing body. There can be few people as qualified or as skilled as Seb in fulfilling this important role.
"I am sure he will play an integral part in the development and modernisation of our great sport. It is particularly important in the run-up to London 2012, where Seb will combine his role with that of the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).
Four further British officials were today voted onto IAAF committee's at the Congress meeting:
David Littlewood - re-elected onto the Techinical Committee;
Peter Marlow - re-elected onto the Race | 252 |
Opinion|Consciousness Isn't a Mystery. It's Matter.
Consciousness Isn't a Mystery. It's Matter.
By Galen Strawson
CreditCreditUllstein bild, via Getty Images
Every day, it seems, some verifiably<|fim_middle|> know the intrinsic nature of physical stuff, except — Russell again — insofar as we know it simply through having a conscious experience.
We find this idea extremely difficult because we're so very deeply committed to the belief that we know more about the physical than we do, and (in particular) know enough to know that consciousness can't be physical. We don't see that the hard problem is not what consciousness is, it's what matter is — what the physical is.
We may think that physics is sorting this out, and it's true that physics is magnificent. It tells us a great many facts about the mathematically describable structure of physical reality, facts that it expresses with numbers and equations (e = mc2, the inverse-square law of gravitational attraction, the periodic table and so on) and that we can use to build amazing devices. True, but it doesn't tell us anything at all about the intrinsic nature of the stuff that fleshes out this structure. Physics is silent — perfectly and forever silent — on this question.
This point was a commonplace one 100 years ago, but it has gotten lost in the recent discussion of consciousness. Stephen Hawking makes it dramatically in his book "A Brief History of Time." Physics, he says, is "just a set of rules and equations." The question is what "breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?" What is the fundamental stuff of physical reality, the stuff that is structured in the way physics reveals? The answer, again, is that we don't know — except insofar as this stuff takes the form of conscious experience.
We can say that it is energy that breathes fire into the equations, using the word "energy" as Heisenberg does when he says, for example, that "all particles are made of the same substance: energy," but the fundamental question arises again — "What is the intrinsic nature of this energy, this energy-stuff?" And the answer, again, is that we don't know, and that physics can't tell us; that's just not its business. This point about the limits on what physics can tell us is rock solid, and it arises before we begin to consider any of the deep problems of understanding that arise within physics — problems with "dark matter" or "dark energy," for example — or with reconciling quantum mechanics and general relativity theory.
Those who make the Very Large Mistake (of thinking they know enough about the nature of the physical to know that consciousness can't be physical) tend to split into two groups. Members of the first group remain unshaken in their belief that consciousness exists, and conclude that there must be some sort of nonphysical stuff: They tend to become "dualists." Members of the second group, passionately committed to the idea that everything is physical, make the most extraordinary move that has ever been made in the history of human thought. They deny the existence of consciousness: They become "eliminativists."
This amazing phenomenon (the denial of the existence of consciousness) is a subject for another time. The present point — it's worth repeating many times — is that no one has to react in either of these ways. All they have to do is grasp the fundamental respect in which we don't know the intrinsic nature of physical stuff in spite of all that physics tells us. In particular, we don't know anything about the physical that gives us good reason to think that consciousness can't be wholly physical. It's worth adding that one can fully accept this even if one is unwilling to agree with Russell that in having conscious experience we thereby know something about the intrinsic nature of physical reality.
So the hard problem is the problem of matter (physical stuff in general). If physics made any claim that couldn't be squared with the fact that our conscious experience is brain activity, then I believe that claim would be false. But physics doesn't do any such thing. It's not the physics picture of matter that's the problem; it's the ordinary everyday picture of matter. It's ironic that the people who are most likely to doubt or deny the existence of consciousness (on the ground that everything is physical, and that consciousness can't possibly be physical) are also those who are most insistent on the primacy of science, because it is precisely science that makes the key point shine most brightly: the point that there is a fundamental respect in which ultimate intrinsic nature of the stuff of the universe is unknown to us — except insofar as it is consciousness.
Galen Strawson is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author, most recently, of "Locke on Personal Identity: Consciousness and Concernment."
Now in print: "The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments," an anthology of essays from The Times's philosophy series, edited by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley, published by Liveright Books. | intelligent person tells us that we don't know what consciousness is. The nature of consciousness, they say, is an awesome mystery. It's the ultimate hard problem. The current Wikipedia entry is typical: Consciousness "is the most mysterious aspect of our lives"; philosophers "have struggled to comprehend the nature of consciousness."
I find this odd because we know exactly what consciousness is — where by "consciousness" I mean what most people mean in this debate: experience of any kind whatever. It's the most familiar thing there is, whether it's experience of emotion, pain, understanding what someone is saying, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or feeling. It is in fact the only thing in the universe whose ultimate intrinsic nature we can claim to know. It is utterly unmysterious.
The nature of physical stuff, by contrast, is deeply mysterious, and physics grows stranger by the hour. (Richard Feynman's remark about quantum theory — "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics" — seems as true as ever.) Or rather, more carefully: The nature of physical stuff is mysterious except insofar as consciousness is itself a form of physical stuff. This point, which is at first extremely startling, was well put by Bertrand Russell in the 1950s in his essay "Mind and Matter": "We know nothing about the intrinsic quality of physical events," he wrote, "except when these are mental events that we directly experience." In having conscious experience, he claims, we learn something about the intrinsic nature of physical stuff, for conscious experience is itself a form of physical stuff.
I think Russell is right: Human conscious experience is wholly a matter of physical goings-on in the body and in particular the brain. But why does he say that we know nothing about the intrinsic quality of physical events except when these are mental events we directly experience? Isn't he exaggerating? I don't think so, and I'll try to explain. First, though, I need to try to reply to those (they're probably philosophers) who doubt that we really know what conscious experience is.
The reply is simple. We know what conscious experience is because the having is the knowing: Having conscious experience is knowing what it is. You don't have to think about it (it's really much better not to). You just have to have it. It's true that people can make all sorts of mistakes about what is going on when they have experience, but none of them threaten the fundamental sense in which we know exactly what experience is just in having it.
"Yes, but what is it?" At this point philosophers like to give examples: smelling garlic, experiencing pain, orgasm. Russell mentions "feeling the coldness of a frog" (a live frog), while Locke in 1689 considers the taste of pineapple. If someone continues to ask what it is, one good reply (although Wittgenstein disapproved of it) is "you know what it is like from your own case." Ned Block replies by adapting the response Louis Armstrong reportedly gave to someone who asked him what jazz was: "If you gotta ask, you ain't never going to know."
So we all know what consciousness is. Once we're clear on this we can try to go further, for consciousness does of course raise a hard problem. The problem arises from the fact that we accept that consciousness is wholly a matter of physical goings-on, but can't see how this can be so. We examine the brain in ever greater detail, using increasingly powerful techniques like fMRI, and we observe extraordinarily complex neuroelectrochemical goings-on, but we can't even begin to understand how these goings-on can be (or give rise to) conscious experiences.
The German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz made the point vividly in 1714. Perception or consciousness, he wrote, is "inexplicable on mechanical principles, i.e. by shapes and movements. If we imagine a machine whose structure makes it think, sense, and be conscious, we can conceive of it being enlarged in such a way that we can go inside it like a mill" — think of the 1966 movie "Fantastic Voyage," or imagine the ultimate brain scanner. Leibniz continued, "Suppose we do: visiting its insides, we will never find anything but parts pushing each other — never anything that could explain a conscious state."
It's true that modern physics and neurophysiology have greatly complicated our picture of the brain, but Leibniz's basic point remains untouched.
His mistake is to go further, and conclude that physical goings-on can't possibly be conscious goings-on. Many make the same mistake today — the Very Large Mistake (as Winnie-the-Pooh might put it) of thinking that we know enough about the nature of physical stuff to know that conscious experience can't be physical. We don't. We don't | 1,007 |
Erich Nakano Announced As New LTSC Executive Director
11/12/19 Erich Nakano Announced<|fim_middle|>OLT 5 🎵
BudoComedy Show 2 on the Plaza 👏
Summer Fun at Camp Budokan | As New LTSC Executive Director
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The Board of Directors of Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) today announced that Erich Nakano has been named Executive Director of the organization. Nakano has served in this role in an interim capacity since July 2019.
"Nakano is respected and admired by the board, staff, volunteers, supporters and community at large. He has helped articulate a vision for the organization that resonates deeply with me, my fellow board members and our governors," said Dick Kaku, President of the Board of Directors. "During Nakano's tenure at LTSC, we have appreciated his deep professional experience, his foresight, and his passion for our mission that have made him ideally suited to the Executive Director position. I know that he is the right person to lead LTSC at this vital time."
Nakano is deeply rooted in community work with over 27 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and management, community development, strategic planning and fiscal administration. In June 2005, he began serving as Deputy Director of LTSC, where he oversaw organizational development as well as management and personnel policies. He also managed the department directors of Community Economic Development, Service Programs, Finance, Fundraising and Administration, Human Resources, Child Development, and Community Technology.
Nakano started at LTSC in 1992 as a Project Manager in Community Economic Development, and in 1999 he took the reins as Director of Administration. In 1990 he received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and was awarded a master's degree in 1993 from the University of California, Los Angeles' Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Nakano said, "I am proud to be a part of this amazing institution. Every person involved in the organization is committed to helping others and to provide Los Angeles, Little Tokyo and its surrounding communities with positive change. Many thanks to the Board of Directions for their ongoing support and trust. I am very excited about what the future holds for LTSC."
LTFM Celebrates 1 Year on the Plaza
Clubs with a Cause: Golf Tournament Raises Funds for Budokan Programs
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The Sanibel-Captiva Optimist Club recently awarded one of its college scholarships<|fim_middle|> school graduates.
All six scholarships provide the recipients with $2,500 per year for four years of active enrollment, a total of $10,000.
The J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge recently improved its accessibility for mobility-impaired visitors by adding automatic door openers to the Visitor & Education Center entrance.
It augments a long list of accessibility efforts through the years at the refuge, including a ramp and lift up to the center, a ramp at the observation tower, closed captioning for the center's orientation film, and handicap restrooms at the center and Cross-Dike Pavilion.
Most trails and Tarpon Bay Explorers tours are also handicapped-accessible. | to Sam E. Arensman, a Sanibel resident and 2018 graduate of Fort Myers High School.
He received the Sam and Francis Bailey four-year scholarship. A special scholarship, the club only awards it every four years and specifies that the applicant has strong Sanibel or Captiva ties.
Arensman has lived on Sanibel for 12 years and attended The Sanibel School. He plans to attend the University of Florida and major in pre-med. Arensman hopes to become a pediatric surgeon, so he can work with children and make their lives better by ensuring they receive needed medical treatments.
The club's other five scholarships are open to all Lee County high | 138 |
Clostridioides is a<|fim_middle|>
The genus Clostridioides was created to describe a few species formerly in the genus Clostridium which have been shown to be their own genetically distinct genus using 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. However, both names are still in use and valid under the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes.
Description
They are obligate anaerobes capable of producing endospores. The normal, reproducing cells of Clostridioides, called the vegetative form, are rod-shaped, which gives them their name, from the Greek κλωστήρ or spindle. Clostridioides endospores, like Clostridium endospores, have a distinct bowling pin or bottle shape, distinguishing them from other bacterial endospores, which are usually ovoid in shape.
References
Peptostreptococcaceae
Gram-positive bacteria
Gut flora bacteria
Pathogenic bacteria
Bacteria genera
Taxa described in 2016 | genus of Gram-positive bacteria, which includes Clostridioides difficile, a human pathogen causing an infectious diarrhea.
Taxonomy | 26 |
The most complete list of every blockchain and cryptocurrency meetup in Boston with ratings! Our custom Bitcoin Market Journal Score is calculated by the number of members, user rating, and activity level. Use it as a guide for which meetups to attend in 2019.
Boston Hyperledger Boston Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration, hosted by The Linux Foundation, including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and technology.
Cambridge Autoblock AutoBlock provides blockchain solutions for the supply chain industry. They cater to the pharma, food, retail, fashion and other industries.
Boston Boston AI Tech Talks Group The Boston AI Tech Talks Meetup Group is excited to bring you the latest and practical technology on AI, machine learning, deep learning, data science and big data.
Boston Boston Blockchain Network Boston Blockchain Network is a group of 1,700+ experts, founders, developers and other business professionals interested in learning, discussing and keeping updated about blockchain, which will transform many industries over the coming years.
Boston Blockchain Investors Supergroup Are you interested in investing in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space? Whether you're a traditional investor, seasoned trader or just crypto-curious, come join the smartest brains in Boston. We'll discuss new blockchain investing opportunities, share<|fim_middle|> blockchain industry. Whether you're a blockchain executive, entrepreneur, freelancer, student, or just plain curious, the Boston Blockchain Association is a collaborative community of lifelong learners who are committed to helping each other, improving the world, and pushing blockchain forward.
1. Establishing Greater Boston as an international hub for blockchain innovation.
2. Supporting, educating, promoting, and advancing blockchain technology.
Keep up to date with everything happening in the blockchain space by subscribing to Bitcoin Market Journal. | our knowledge and learn from each other.
Boston Boston Blockchain Association Presents "Boston Blockchain Association is Boston's #1 professional organization for the | 26 |
<|fim_middle|> | Education Professors Win Blackboard Catalyst Award
Drs. Catherine Barber and Janet McCollum, University of St. Thomas Houston professors in the School of Education and Human Services, won the 2019 Blackboard Catalyst Award for Teaching and Learning awarded by Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. is a leading education technology company for teaching, learning and student engagement.
Teaching and Learning Award
The Teaching & Learning award recognizes those who have adopted flexible, distance and online delivery, including using mobile technologies to affect the educational experience in a positive way.
They accepted the award along with honorees from around the world at the BbWorld annual user conference luncheon held on July 23 – 25 in Austin.
"We sought the Catalyst award to highlight the development of an integrated approach to the M.Ed. courses in scholarly writing and action research," Barber said. "As a result of our efforts to make online courses engaging, accessible, and interactive, our learners' writing and research skills have improved, learner satisfaction is high, and research faculty report high levels of instructional effectiveness. We are honored that this work has been recognized by Blackboard as innovative and cutting-edge."
History of the Catalyst Awards
Founded in 2005, the annual Catalyst Awards recognize and honor innovation and excellence in the Blackboard global community of practice, where millions of educators and learners work every day to redefine what is possible when leveraging technology. A cross-functional team of Blackboard experts selects winners.
In addition to the Teaching and Learning category, 2019 winning categories include Leading Change, Community Engagement, Inclusive Education, Optimizing Student Experience, Training & Professional Development and Student Success. For more information on the Blackboard Catalyst Awards and this year's winners, please visit https://community.blackboard.com/groups/catalystawards.
"We're thrilled to honor this year's Blackboard Catalyst Award winners for their commitment to improving the educational experience for all learners through EdTech and sharing these insights with the broader community," said Lee Blakemore, Chief Client Officer and President, Global Client Operations & Success at Blackboard. "Clients like these inspire us to accelerate innovation driving student success and we're proud to be a part of their story."
Barber and McCollum Have Won Several Times
Dr. Barber and Dr. McCollum are past winners in Blackboard's Exemplary Course Program. In 2017, Barber won for her course "Educational Research and Scholarly Writing." In 2018, McCollum won for her course "Educational Research Design and Data Analysis."
The exemplary awards program recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning.
"Dr. Barber and I are honored to have received individual Blackboard Exemplary Course awards and the Blackboard Catalyst Award for our collaborative work on teaching and learning," McCollum said. "These awards have provided us with an opportunity to apply our research on creating effective online courses, which in turn has informed our book, A New Roadmap for Creating Online Courses: An Interactive Workbook, forthcoming in 2020 from Cambridge University Press." | 656 |
At St Michael's Collegiate our spiritual life and worship is informed by the Anglican tradition of the Christian faith. We seek to uphold the values of the Christian faith in all we do as a school, at the same time recognising and celebrating the diversity that is within our school community and the needs of each individual. We bear witness to Jesus Christ in our worship, through the employment of a restorative approach to behaviour management and through the many areas of service in which the School is involved.
Our beautiful School Chapel is open every school day and is a quiet haven for both students and staff. The Chapel is used regularly for weddings and baptisms and is available to members of the extended Collegiate community. We offer Confirmation each year, with candidates being prepared by our Chaplain, Reverend Kate Boughton.
All girls from Years 5 to 12 participate in weekly Chapel, as well as coming together for occasional combined Middle and Senior School Chapels in Linmor Hall. Students from K to Year 4 enjoy Chapel every week in the community space at the Anglesea Village Campus. We enjoy close relationships with our neighbouring parishes, particularly the Cathedral Church of St David where the School celebrates Year 12 Induction, Easter, St Michael's Day and Valedictory services. At the<|fim_middle|> of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
What God most wants is to see us smile because we know how much God loves us. | Easter and St Michael's Day services, after appropriate instruction, students in Years 5 to 12 can receive Holy Communion if they so choose, in keeping with the Tasmanian Anglican Diocese's protocols of admitting children to Communion. The Junior School gathers at All Saints Church South Hobart on several occasions each year for worship in a more formal setting.
Through the spiritual life of the School, Collegiate seeks to present each member of the School community with the resources for a thinking, discerning, optimistic Christian faith that will enable them to be lifelong disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus.
God's Spirit produces this kind | 128 |
tnconservativesconcerned.org
What Conservatives Are Saying
Emily Haas Lipscomb College Republicans, Past President
December 8, 2016 By admin Leave a Comment
Where I grew up in a rural town just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, Conservatives are loyal to their party the same way a Catholic is loyal to the church. My dad went to work at a steel mill everyday, my mom worked hard as a homemaker, and my sisters and I learned from our books. The three of us were brought up by our family's convictions: Catholic, pro-life, small government, low taxes, Reagan worship, and pro-death penalty. And why wouldn't we support the death penalty? The individuals convicted are individuals that have lost their right to be a part of greater humanity because of their heinous crimes, right?
As an undergraduate student at Lipscomb University studying history and philosophy, to which I fell madly in love<|fim_middle|>, and the human experience. After being elected the College Republican President for the university, I had the opportunity to meet with individuals like Marc Hyden, who represents Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Marc, and the presentation that he delivered to a joint gathering with the College Republicans and the history department, introduced new ways of thinking about the death penalty, how it is administered, and why it is used how it is. The opinions my family impressed upon my sisters and me could not withstand the facts. The institution of death over a citizenry never sounded right to me, but now I had the evidence to back up my concerns and the confidence to dive deeper into the subject.
As a student in Lipscomb University's first Leadership and Public Policy masters class, I am thrilled now to take action. The death penalty is misplaced as a political issue. The state of Tennessee, as well as the United States of America as a whole, has a responsibility to itself and to the rest of the world to lead through positive action; this is also referred to as soft power. We are all humans in community in this world, and it is our civic duty to do all we can to see the humanity in each and every individual. Not only does the death penalty fail to do so, but it also fails to make us safer, to prevent crime, and to ensure that innocent people aren't executed. During the next year as I work with TADP, I will work to transform the criminal justice system into a system that better serves all people, including victims, defendant, and their communities.
Our political views and understanding of government may be different, but we can all see how the death penalty is failing and join together to work for change.
Get occasional updates from us
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Amy Lawrence at amy@tennesseedeathpenalty.org or by calling (615) 480-0281.
Copyright © 2015 A project of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty • Designed by MP&F | , I had opportunities to explore my convictions related to faith, policy | 13 |
This is an experimental course in microwave<|fim_middle|>. | and radiofrequency techniques applicable to accelerator components and systems. Students will be introduced to microwave engineering techniques from a basic level of understanding of electromagnetic fields. Having gained this background, we will more thoroughly develop the analysis and measurement techniques of accelerator components such as pickups and kickers, and rf cavities, as well as beam signals and the interaction of beams with the vacuum chamber components. In the microwave measurements laboratory, students will operate instruments such as network analyzers, time-domain reflectometers, spectrum analyzers, and signal generators. These will be applied to the measurement of cavity modes, electrode response functions, beam impedance, beam induced signals, etc. Accompanying lectures will provide background material in data analysis, terminology, instrument function, and beam interactions. Prerequisites: some familiarity with introductory accelerator physics and electrical circuits | 161 |
Happy Friday friends! Did you have a good Fourth? I was up bright and early to attend a huge country estate sale with my mom and aunt. There was a whole barn and house full of things! It was very pricey, but I did find a few goodies to bring home.
As I mentioned on July 4, I got the itch to try my hand at a pie. I've never made a pie before, but it just sounded so delicious in this summer heat, and fit right into the all-America feeling of Fourth of July. Below is the recipe I used.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with a baking sheet on the middle rack. In a large bowl, toss the blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and lemon zest. Let stand, mixing and coarsely mashing occasionally, 20 minutes.
Fit one round of dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Refrigerate while you continue. Cut the remaining piece of dough into approximately eleven 11/4-inch-wide strips<|fim_middle|> your recipe. We have freezer bags full waiting on me to find a recipe. Thanks for sharing.
That would be so fun to have berry bushes! I bet you'll be able to make all sorts of yummy things! | .
Spoon the blackberry mixture into the pie shell. Dot the top with the butter. Arrange the dough strips in a lattice pattern on top of the filling and trim the strips close to the edge of the pan; roll up and crimp the edge. Lightly beat the egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush on the top and edge of the pie.
Place the pie on the hot baking sheet in the oven and bake until the filling is bubbling, 45 minutes to 1 hour. If the crust browns too quickly, cover it with foil and continue baking. Let the pie cool before serving.
Here's the finished product! Not perfect, but totally delicious! It would have been even better with vanilla ice cream, though we didn't have any on hand.
I used these directions for the lattice-top.
I picked up the soft green scale at a flea market we went to after the farmhouse sale. It was covered in dirt and I thought it was going to be a robin's egg blue, but it turned out it's more of a minty aqua green with a cream top. I love the shade and think I'll use it in our bathroom.
For never having made a pie before, yours look beautiful and scrumptious! Your lattice work is right on! I'd like a big slice of that right now. I have a tiny tip. If your berries are extra juicy, try add a touch more cornstarch in with your filling. You are on the way to a county fair blue ribbon!
Wow, magazine worthy photo. We just moved too and have black raspberry bushes so I'm gonna have to try | 332 |
Sandra Bernal of Corpus Christi has been named to the Dean's List at the University of New Hampshire for earning High Honors for the spring 2021 semester<|fim_middle|> study. UNH's research portfolio includes partnerships with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, receiving more than $100 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.
To learn more about the opportunities at the University of New Hampshire visit: www.unh.edu.
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© 2022 www.recordstar.com. All rights reserved. | . Bernal is majoring in Hotel & Hospitality Management.
Students named to the Dean's List at the University of New Hampshire are students who have earned recognition through their superior scholastic performance during a semester enrolled in a full-time course load (12 or more graded credits). Highest honors are awarded to students who earn a semester grade point average of 3.85 or better out of a possible 4.0. Students with a 3.65 to 3.84 average are awarded high honors and students whose grade point average is 3.5 through 3.64 are awarded honors.
The University of New Hampshire is a flagship research university that inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top ranked programs in business, engineering, law, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of | 202 |
Weekend Box Office Forecast (Updated / Final): Top Gun: Maverick on Cruise Control for Sophomore Frame Victory After Memorial Day Records
Forecasts & Tracking • Shawn Robbins • June 01 2022
Photo Credits: Paramount Pictures & Claudio Miranda ("Top Gun: Maverick")
Friday Morning Final Forecast: With no new releases to muddy the waters this weekend, and exceptional weekday holds influencing Top Gun: Maverick's second weekend expectations, our final forecast for the blockbuster Tom Cruise sequel's sophomore frame has been updated and added to the chart below.
All other forecasts below are true to their previous Wednesday morning models.
Wednesday Morning Report: Tom Cruise lifted the domestic box office to new all-time heights for Memorial Day weekend, and now Top Gun: Maverick is poised for another clear victory in its second frame.
The acclaimed sequel is likely to claim the best second weekend performance of any Memorial opener in history, a title currently held by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with $44.75 million in 2008.
Breaking multiple all-time Memorial records last week, Maverick is soaring with audiences across the domestic market as it now hopes to turn that momentum into a leggy run. The film's audience and critic marks are nothing short of stellar, and the lack of major openers this weekend will help pad its early staying power.
The lack of a new tentpole or high profile summer movie opening the week after Memorial Day has happened before, but was fairly uncommon in pre-pandemic years. It's an industry move that allows Maverick breathing room before Jurassic World Dominion hits on June 10. From there, the heart of summer moviegoing will be in full swing as major releases hit cinemas nearly every week through July and early August.
Past Memorial openers are naturally ones to look at for Top Gun's prospective hold, but most faced significant competition in their sophomore frames (and/or did not have near the audience reception of Maverick). Solo: A Star Wars Story slid 65 percent in 2019, while older comparisons like Men In Black 3 and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull dropped 49 and 55 percent, respectively.
Beyond the aforementioned Crystal Skull record for sophomore weekend performances after bowing over the May holiday, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is just a hair behind Indy at $44.2 million, while 2019's live action Aladdin wasn't far off either with $42.8 million.
Maverick also has some front-loading aspects to shed since Paramount included two days' worth of pre-Thursday grosses in last weekend's haul, not to mention Thursday "previews" themselves began as early as 3pm. The film's "four-day" haul of $160.5 million technically included more than five days' worth of showtimes — but that's irrelevant in<|fim_middle|> to give the domestic market some fresh mid-winter momentum.
Long Range Box Office Forecast: Cocaine Bear and Jesus Revolution Could End February as a Solid Counter-Programming Duo
Shawn Robbins • Jan 27th
This week's web-based edition of long range tracking looks at the final frame of February, currently set for the release of two very different films in another encouraging studio counter-programming move. | the macro scheme of things given the enormous success of the film.
On the new release front, two films will go into limited release this weekend: David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future for NEON and IFC Film's Watcher. Location count and box office projections are somewhat volatile, but one or both could sneak into the weekend top ten at the box office.
Opening Weekend Ranges
Second Weekend Range: $68 – 84 million
Weekend Forecast & Location Count Projections
Current projections call for a 40 to 45 percent decrease from last weekend's $174.5 million top ten aggregate (three-day).
Film Distributor 3-Day Weekend Forecast Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, June 5 Location Count Projection (as of Wed) 3-Day % Change from Last Wknd
Top Gun: Maverick Paramount Pictures $74,700,000 $280,000,000 ~4,735 -41%
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Disney & Marvel Studios $9,700,000 $388,300,000 ~3,700 -40%
The Bob's Burgers Movie 20th Century Studios (Disney) $5,000,000 $23,100,000 ~3,425 -60%
Downton Abbey: A New Era Focus Features $3,500,000 $35,400,000 ~3,500 -39%
The Bad Guys Universal Pictures & DreamWorks Animation $3,200,000 $86,700,000 ~2,800 -27%
Everything Everywhere All at Once A24 $1,900,000 $60,300,000 ~1,400 -23%
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Paramount Pictures $1,700,000 $188,000,000 ~2,000 -31%
Crimes of the Future NEON $1,300,000 $1,300,000 ~900 NEW
The Lost City Paramount Pictures $1,000,000 $103,600,000 ~700 -50%
Watcher IFC Films $500,000 $500,000 ~900 NEW
*All forecasts are subject to revision before the first confirmation of Thursday previews or Friday estimates from studios or official sources.
Theater counts are updated as confirmed by studios. The above table does not necessarily represent the top ten as some studios do not finalize weekend location counts and/or an intent to report box office returns prior to publishing.
Crimes of the Future David Cronenberg IFC Films Neon Paramount Pictures Tom Cruise Top Gun: Maverick Watcher
Super Bowl Weekend Box Office Forecast: Magic Mike's Last Dance and Titanic's 25th Anniversary Re-Issue Will Try to Counter the Big Game
Shawn Robbins • Feb 8th
It's not a weekend exhibitors particularly look forward to each year with the certainty of deflated Sunday box office at hand, but 2023's Super Bowl frame will at least provide a couple of counter-programming options in hopes of softening the...
Long Range Box Office Forecast: Creed III Tracking for a Healthy March Opening Round
Shawn Robbins • Feb 3rd
This week's long range tracking welcomes the addition of Creed III as the film is slated to kick off a highly anticipated March slate of wide theatrical releases.
Weekend Box Office Forecast: Knock at the Cabin, 80 for Brady, and The Chosen: Season 3 Finale Each Look to Stand Out
Shawn Robbins • Feb 1st
January was able to perform on the high end of expectations, and an even more encouraging February gets underway this weekend with three key releases looking | 861 |
Argh, argh, argh, argh, argh!
The naïve but lovable SpongeBob SquarePants made his debut back in 1999. While a show about a cleaning product shouldn't have found an audience with young kids it was a surprise hit. Along with the longevity the series has enjoyed, there comes a quandary: How do you keep pushing boundaries, while still retaining what makes the show successful? The creative team has found an answer with It's a SpongeBob Christmas! This is the characters' first foray into stop-motion animation, and there's no better time to try it than a holiday special.
The result is a holiday special which harkens back to the Rankin/Bass animated classics of old. Stop-motion animation is one of my loves and I was pleased with how well done this was. Influenced in concept and execution by 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, the story is simple: Plankton has a plan to get his hands on the secret krabby patty recipe. He'll use Santa to obtain it, but he first has to convince the jolly old elf he's worthy. This will be done by feeding everyone in town a piece of fruitcake laced with Jerktonium, the effect of which makes Plankton look like a nice guy in comparison to the townsfolk who have now been corrupted. Even though SpongeBob initially<|fim_middle|> Christmas! is definitely worthy of consideration. You can easily catch it on Nickelodeon through the holidays, but this exceptional Nickelodeon DVD truly deserves a purchase. | helps Plankton, by the end he has saved the town and Christmas too.
It's a SpongeBob Christmas! is a sweet holiday treat, punctuated by musical numbers that'll leave you smiling. Even with an obvious air of nostalgia for adults, the classic series elements are all here to keep the kids enraptured, most notably the song "Don't Be a Jerk (It's Christmas)" which details how to behave properly during the holidays. The 22 minute short moves at a quick clip, more concerned with chuckles than dramatic story elements. It's an effective and immensely re-watchable outing which can easily secure a permanent place in your rotation of annual holiday viewing.
Presented in standard definition 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture quality is great, the series classic color palette translating surprisingly well from two to three dimensions. The Dolby 5.1 Surround track didn't need any tweaking, as everything falls into place quite nicely.
Given that the feature presentation is only 22 minutes, Nickelodeon makes the disc worth purchasing by backfilling with bonus material. An information behind-the-scenes featurette gets into how the special came about. A highly detailed storyboard comparison takes on the entire narrative, rather than select scenes. For those who remember this early TV holiday tradition, a Bikini Bottom yule log burns brightly on an endless loop. And the package is rounded out with a handful of MP3 tunes.
If you're looking for a new holiday viewing, It's a SpongeBob | 311 |
Schedule for Clinic & Training Day: Coming Soon….
The Auburn Triathlon Training Day is an annual tradition where registered participants from beginner to advanced (<|fim_middle|> and personal instruction environment.
Their revolutionary teaching system breaks down swimming technique in the proper order, making teaching more effective and learning easier while providing for individual adaptation to best suit each athlete. Their state of the art personal training program utilizes training paces, optimal stroke counts and our revolutionary SCORE SWIM TRAINING® making preparation more fun, purposeful and effective.
Anyone from beginner to advanced looking to test the waters and courses either before race day or just out for a supported training day. | non-registered folks may join, too!) can become familiar with their chosen race course, meet fellow competitors, ask questions, get in open water (perhaps for the first time of the year), test out the swim course and ease anxieties. Additionally, participants can ride and run the courses to know what to expect and build their confidence. This is a great opportunity to check out your gearing, your nutrition, your clothing. Make it a dress rehearsal.
There will be a Mini Open Water Swim Clinic hosted by Jeff Pearson and Chris Stehula of Boost Swimming. Boost was very well received last year providing wonderful open water swim tips for those less familiar with swimming in open water and also great swim tips to those even more experienced. You are guaranteed to learn something from Jeff and Chris.
Boost Swimming is committed to helping swimmers and triathletes of all ages and abilities to achieve their athletic goals. Their professional coaches are passionate about the sport of swimming and committed to dramatically improving the swimming ability of athletes in a fun and effective camp, clinic | 208 |
There are not many playgrounds that I am willing to play on with Z. I admit it. I am not one of those parents that fancies playing with my preschooler. I love cooking with her, making crafts together, and chatting with her. But playing on a playground? No thanks. I would much rather let Z run around with other kids or her Dad at a playground or park while I get some blogging or very important Facebooking done (yeah right… I should say get my Facebook fix, I won't deny it).
So here is the point that I have to tell you that I have found one place on this Earth that I actually want to run around and play with Z… Imaginia Playland in Bangkok.
Imaginia is located in The Emporium in Bangkok, which is a high-end, designer clothing and goods mall. It is way in the back and somewhat difficult to find, but once you are there you won't want to leave.
The price of entrance for Imaginia is 200 baht per guardian and between 100-480 baht per child depending on their height. Z is 103 cm and is already in the highest ticket category.
Side Note: Make sure to bring socks to wear, if you forget them they sell them at the front counter for a small sum.
When you enter, you are all given a bracelet with an RFID sensor and a key to a large locker for your belongings and shoes. I was not sure what the RFID bracelet was for, but I assumed it was to be<|fim_middle|> place for kids (and adults). Nice find, Jenny. (By the way, it looks like you posted the same two paragraphs – just b/f Z on the slide pic.) I'll have to share this on Twitter. And I'm most surprised by the price, not bad at all!
It was such a blasts'. It had been a long time since z and I had had such fun together. Life gets in the way a lot. It was great reconnecting with her and playing with her.
Looks like lots of fun. 'Love the photos. 🙂 Bangkok is such a diverse interesting place. I'm always impressed whenever I go there. It's quite clean, quite organised and quite cheap! I mean, I've been to India & Vietnam. You can't compare them although I really liked Vietnam lol!
p.s. I don't blame you about the playground thing. I didn't like it either. So boooooring. And the mums! Gossip! Gossip! Gossip! I left it to my husband as he stayed at home for two years lol!
Victoria@ The British Berliner recently posted…Think David Bowie! Think Alan Rickman! Think the British Shorts Film Festival!
We are doing a staycation in BKK and I've been searching through your posts for places to take Louis. He's younger than Z but this place looks like an all out RUNFEST, which is one sure way into the little guy's heart. I love how you post about experiences you have with your family and am thankful for all the tips to glean from your writings!
Thanks so much Leslie! I think that Louis would have a total blast (in fact Z and I talk about Imaginia, at least every day still). I think you will have fun too. And the fact that Z fell asleep so easily that night wasn't bad either. Ha! | used to keep track of the money you could spend at Nana's Cafe inside the establishment.
After I had some liquid energy, Z and I started running around, checking out all the areas of this amazing playland. We started by checking out the library. It was a cozy little room with beanbags and books for all ages, though they were all in Thai. Connected to the library was a room full of DJ booths for the kids. This is where I learned what else the RFID bracelets were for. The Imaginia employee (they were everywhere and ultra-helpful) showed Z how to hold her bracelet up to an RFID reader in one of the DJ booths after showing her how to use the turntables. Z started making her electronic music and a camera started recording her musical debut. After Z finished her song, the screen asked for my email address. I entered it and promptly received a video of her at the table.
One of the RFID readers in blurry, having too much fun to take pictures form.
Z in the DJ booth.
Just to jump ahead a little, I was expecting a charge at the end of our afternoon but all the RFID videos and photos were sent to me free of charge… thank goodness because I had about 20 emails.
There was also a huge slide that was my favorite activity, Z and I went down it together numerous times and then she went down it many more times, trying to get the perfect picture. It was awesome and adorable.
My favorite of the slide poses.
Then we went into the art room, where there were coloring pages and a craft project that changes monthly. This month was superhero and Disney Princess headbands. Z chose to make the Elsa one (from the movie Frozen, just in case you have never seen it a hundred times like I have… is anyone that lucky?!). It was a great way to take a little break and relax in between the running and sliding.
Z and her Elsa headband.
Then Z decided to check out a car that was right in the middle of the playground. Around the car were little stones with computer screens in them. I didn't even have to tell her what to do, she scanned her RFID bracelet and started decorated and designing her dream car. As she drew on the screen, it projected onto the car. It was really cool!
Then we ran (seriously, I actually ran with her!) and checked out everything else Imaginia had to offer before we had to leave because it was closing time. I have made a slideshow of what else we did. Honestly, this would be an extremely long post if I wrote about all the cool activities we did that day.
Wow!! That place looks like so much fun!! Seems like you would need an entire day to see everything!
If we lived in Bangkok we would probably get a membership and go every week. It's just that fantastic!
That looks so fun! Like a less expensive and more fun version of the one in SoCal! Love the pic of Z on the slide?
They have one in Southern California? I was sure this was a chain but am stoked to hear there is one in the states!
Wow, this sounds like a dream place! I know we would have visited over and over again if we had something so cool near us. Such fun!
Although now I know to put it on the itinerary every time we head to Bangkok for sure!
What a great | 689 |
Political Science 210 – Introduction to Comparative Politics (2014 course syllabus). An introduction to the sub discipline of Comparative Politics and the concepts and approaches used to understand similarities and differences between political systems, political culture, political participation and the structures of government.
Political Science 313A – U.S. Politics: Parties, Elections, and Social Movements (2015 course syllabus). This course introduces<|fim_middle|> of the US political system through the lens of contemporary constitutional disputes, including abortion, gun control, freedom of speech and religion, capital punishment and privacy. The investigation of these controversies and how they have been resolved by the Supreme Court leads to broader insights into contemporary American democracy and the operation of federal and state institutions.
Political Science 370 – The Politics of Surveillance (2016 course syllabus). This is a new course that investigates the nature, causes and consequences of the pervasive surveillance in the contemporary world. The course combines some political theory, comparative politics, international relations and Canadian public policy and law. Students write research papers on contemporary institutional practices where personal data is captured, processed and disseminated.
Political Science 507/607/ADMN 605 – Comparative Public Policy and Governance (2014 course syllabus). This interdisciplinary course provides a survey of various contemporary theories and models of public policy-making in advanced industrial societies. It is designed for graduate students in Political Science, Public Administration and other cognate disciplines. It is also a required course for any student wishing to sit the joint candidacy examination in Public Policy and Governance jointly administered by the Department of Political Science and the School of Public Administration. | students to the political system of the United States, and concentrates on democratic processes: parties, groups, movements and elections. It is aimed at those students who have completed some political science, have some knowledge of American politics through the media, but who have never had a systematic introduction to the operation of US political institutions.
Political Science 313B – U.S. Politics: Public Policy, the Constitution and Civil Liberties (2016 course syllabus). This course provides a general overview of the operation | 102 |
2018 Victory in the Pacific Tour
Firsthand WWII veteran accounts magnify the impact of a Museum travel tour to island battlegrounds.
Guests of The National WWII Museum's inaugural Victory in the Pacific travel tour have returned home after logging more than 19,000 flight miles and two weeks spent touring some of the most crucial battlefields of the Pacific war. I was lucky enough to join them on the dizzying itinerary that included stops in Hawaii, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Iwo Jima, and an optional visit to Peleliu or Japan. Renowned historians Richard Frank and Jonathan Parshall provided historical context at all the locations, expertise seasoned with the personal accounts of Pacific veterans who in many cases were returning for the first time since the war.
Visiting the battlefields of the Pacific—arrayed over staggering distances—was a completely different experience than trips I had taken in Europe; there is something about the Pacific that I can only describe as wild and untamed. I could feel the jagged limestone and coral of the Marianas and Peleliu beneath my feet, or Iwo's black sands swallowing my feet past my ankles. I would describe the terrain as difficult to traverse at best, even in noncombat conditions. The islands are strewn with ridges and valleys, and liberally peppered with the caves that once concealed tenacious Japanese fighters. Rusty war machines from both sides still litter the battlefields of the Pacific<|fim_middle|> map to represent where we're going,'" said the gunner. "She'll know exactly where I am all the time if I tell her that we're 1,000 miles from the X and 1,000 miles from the Y."
Gunnery Sergeant Keith Renstrom told us about the night on Saipan when he chose not to fire his weapon so he wouldn't frighten or endanger the orphaned little girl he had taken under his care. As the battle raged all around this tough Marine, he refused to abandon this little girl. The next morning, a corpsman came to take her to the rear. Hesitantly, she went with the corpsman, timidly taking several steps forward then stopping and turning to look back. With Renstrom signaling to her that it was OK, she turned her head for one last look as the jeep carried her away and out of sight.
Corporal Hershel "Woody" Williams gave tribute to the two Marines in his ad hoc squad on Iwo Jima. Woody had never met them before that day, but they gave their lives covering his one-man assault against a bunker complex that resulted in the destruction of numerous Japanese positions and Williams being awarded the Medal of Honor. Woody also lost his best friend on Iwo Jima. On the eve of the battle, the two had exchanged a vow that if one or the other were killed, the survivor would return the other's personal effects to their family. One of the first things Woody did upon returning to the States was borrow a car so he could return his fallen buddy's ring to his family.
Yes, it was the many stories like these—told along the way by the men who actually lived them—that were the real highlights of the Victory in the Pacific tour.
Paul Hilliard examines the remains of a Japanese tank on the airfield at Pelielu.
Sergeant Paul Hilliard.
Keith Renstrom revisits the Saipan beach he came ashore 73 years earlier.
Gunnery Sergeant Keith Renstrom.
Woody Williams at the 73rd commemoration of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Corporal Hershel "Woody" Williams.
Travel with The National WWII Museum
Journey through time with renowned historians and best-selling authors.
Larry Decuers
Larry Decuers is a former Curator at The National WWII Museum and veteran of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division.
The Pacific Strategy, 1941-1944
On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. When Germany and Italy declared war on the United States days later, America found itself in a global war.
Early Access Tour
Begin your immersive journey into World War II on the exclusive Early Access Tour!
The National WWII Museum's private Center for Collections & Archives is excited to present rarely seen artifacts from our vault, not available for public viewing, which give voice to the American experience in World War II.
Step inside the Museum vault and climb into a B-24 Liberator—it's all part of Behind the Lines, the exclusive VIP tour of The National WWII Museum. | , in contrast to the marble monuments that mark the battle sites in Europe. The islands fought over in the Pacific are indeed some of the most remote places on Earth, and are trod lightly by tourists in comparison to the scenes of European battles.
What really made the trip special, though, were the veterans. Their stories had us laughing out loud one minute and our eyes welling up with tears the next.
In a single anecdote, Sergeant Paul Hilliard, who flew as a rear-seat gunner in Dauntless Dive Bombers with Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 341, conveyed to us both the immensity of the theater and the vital importance of humor in the face of such a grim and hazardous job. Hilliard, Vice Chairman of the Museum's Board of Trustees pictured with me in the top photo at the airfield on Peleilu, recalled a conversation with a "slow-on-the-uptake" gunner, whose fears of the folks back home not knowing where he was had just been dissuaded by one of the squadron's officers:
"Captain said to tell mother, 'Take a map of the Pacific, mark an X anywhere on it to represent where we were, then mark a Y anywhere on the | 251 |
BARE HANDS CROSSFIT
A Look Inside Bare Hands (photos)
DROP IN TODAY
Coach's Notes
What is Bare Hands?
learn your bare hands history
Bare Hands CrossFit became a dream in 2<|fim_middle|> to find a different path to fitness and happiness
Luckily for him and Bare Hands Universe, a guy named Steve Frierdich showed Scott CrossFit at the City Park, and the rest...
is ancient history.
In 2013, Bare Hands opened at 223 N. Main St. in Columbia, IL. Luck struck again, and BH moved to our current wonderful space down at 618 N Main St., right in the heart of town, next to Tiny's, Reifs, Too Blue, and the rest of The Old Distillery gang.
Going on eight years, Bare Hands CrossFit has been a home-away-from-home, a place to get away, a place to come vent stress, a place to challenge yourself, a place to support our fellow citizens, get fitter, drop some pounds,
and laugh...always laughing.
Since then, we've been changing lives and sweating together every. single. day.
Yes, Bare Hands is a "gym." But it's become more than that. We commune. We push our boundaries. Some days, we slack (gasp)! Somewhere along the line, people started thinking that regular people like us can't do CrossFit.
We hear all the time "I'd love to try CrossFit, but there's NO WAY I could do it!"
Well, we are here to prove everyone wrong and to help YOU prove everyone wrong.
Anyone can do CrossFit, and you can do it at Bare Hands.
The Bare hands community has a lot offer
take a minute to explore our site so you don't miss something
Stay connected on social media
Columbia, IL, 62236
barehandscrossfit@gmail.com | 010. Becoming a "broken runner" forced Scott (the founder) | 17 |
2016 Year in Review: Alberta's Construction Industry - Taurus Projects Inc.
With the year rapidly coming to an end, pause for reflection includes looking at some of the positive accomplishments of the construction industry in Alberta. With uncertainty in the economy, it is reassuring to remember that several outstanding projects were completed this year. Many of the projects included buildings located in Edmonton.
<|fim_middle|>016 Taurus Projects Inc. All Rights Reserved. | In October, the Enbridge Center was the first new office tower to have opened in the financial district in downtown Edmonton in 30 years. The 28 storey tower was built on the historic site of the Kelly Ramsey Building. The original building was damaged by a fire in 2009, but the original bricks were removed, cleaned and reinstalled at the base of the tower. The projected $300 million budget cost an additional $3.8 million for the restoration work. The City of Edmonton paid half the cost of the facade reproduction. An overhead pedway connects the building to Manulife Place while an underground pedway connects to Scotia Place.
The most advanced sports and entertainment venue in North America has 24,000 square feet of public event space. Ford Hall provides a pedway connection between Rogers Place and the Public Plaza, surrounding towers, hotel, LRT and the rest of downtown. Seating capacity for hockey games is 18,641 and for concerts; 20,734. The arena opened on September 8, 2016, and was awarded the top prize at the Alberta Construction Magazine's 15th annual top project awards.
Located in the Ice District in Edmonton, the office building opened in December 2016. It has 40,000 square feet of retail space and over 520,000 square feet of office space for lease. Floors 3 and Floors 5-19 will be occupied by the City of Edmonton. Over 200 city employees will work hotel style with only lockers, a tablet and a briefcase. The space is designed to save costs and empower employees to choose how and where to work. They will have access to sit/stand desks throughout the building if they need a place to work. Also located within the building will be a floor for child care services, restaurants, cafes and other conveniences.
Designated as the largest museum in Western Canada, the new building provides double the exhibition space of the old building. At 419,000 square feet, the museum has over 82,000 square feet of exhibition space. The building was completed in August 2016 but transitioning the exhibits will take some time. The anticipated opening date is scheduled for later in the year in 2017. With the capability of providing facilities for cultural and historic exhibits, Edmonton can establish itself as an attractive destination for a variety of exhibits.
On October 31, 2016, Calgary International Airport opened a state of the art International Terminal. The project added 2 million square feet to the terminal building as well as a 14,000-foot runway for arriving and departing flights. The new construction provides passengers with the ability to connect from concourse to concourse without leaving the secure area. With the International Terminal opened, construction will begin on improving the Domestic Terminal building.
What were your favourite construction projects of 2016? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!
Copyright © 2 | 642 |
Huntington Window Design are located in Stensall. In case you assume that double glazing is barely accessible in white, and in one fashion, you then couldn't be more mistaken!
Whether or not your property is fashionable or previous, a flat or a house, you will be able to find a style of double glazing to go well with you.
Even if it's essential match your windows to the remainder of your street, or block, you might be very likely now to discover a firm which will have the ability to fulfil your requirements.
One purpose many individuals determine to put in double glazing is to make their house warmer, and to cut back their heating bills. That is significantly vital in older properties the place the home windows might have deteriorated over time and be in poor condition.
However, when you have an older property, with older fashion home windows, you could not want to install fashionable trying windows in it as they'll look out of place. There are double glazed models out there that look similar to the previous-style sash windows from the outside. It is only on shut inspection that it is possible for you to to see that they're certainly not made of wood, and are actually new double glazing.
Also when you have leaded panes<|fim_middle|>, and elegance of double glazing to go well with every taste. | in your windows, these too can be replicated in double glazed windows.
There are such a lot of totally different kinds of double glazing that it's unimaginable to list them. Whether you want windows that open in a standard manner (casement home windows), home windows that tilt, sash home windows, windows that only open slightly, reversible windows (which make cleaning a lot easier on increased flooring), or the rest, then you could find it somewhere. There are also firms who do bespoke double glazing window design so if your requirements are very specific you still have a very good probability of having the ability to get what you want. Huntington Window Design can help you.
Many individuals have the impression that double glazing is barely out there in white but this isn't true. Double glazed models might be manufactured in any colour (though not each company provides a full vary, and if they do, the items will price greater than commonplace finishes), and there are also wood impact finishes that may be an ideal different if you are replacing treated (not painted) wood windows.
If you're prepared to pay a little extra then you'll be able to really get timber double glazed units. These look great either in outdated properties, or in additional modern ones.
A 3rd material choice is aluminium. So you'll be able to see that there actually is a color or material | 274 |
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Subscribe to<|fim_middle|>, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas Jefferson's oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother's death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France.
It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father's troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age. Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love—with her father's protégé William Short, a staunch abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as William's wife and still be a devoted daughter.
Her choice will follow her in the years to come, to Virginia farmland, Monticello, and even the White House. And as scandal, tragedy, and poverty threaten her family, Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect her father's reputation, in the process defining not just his political legacy, but that of the nation he founded. | read the full book or read the first pages for free!
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Walden - 150th Anniversary Edition
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\section{Introduction}
Model checking~\cite{Clarke81,Quiell81} can formally verify that a
design satisfies a temporal logic specification. Yet, due to
scalability problems, it may be infeasible to prove all critical
properties of a complex design. Reactive
synthesis~\cite{Pnueli89,BloemJPPS12} is even more ambitious since it
aims to generate a provably correct design from a given specification.
In addition to scalability problems, reactive synthesis has the drawback
of requiring a complete specification, which describes every aspect of
the desired design. However, writing a complete specification can
sometimes be as hard as implementing the design itself.
\begin{wrapfigure}[7]{r}{0.45\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.6cm}
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{figs/attach_shield}
\caption{Attaching a safety shield.\\}
\label{fig:attach_shield}
\end{wrapfigure}
We propose \emph{shield synthesis} as a way to complement model checking
and reactive synthesis. Our goal is to enforce a small set of critical
properties at runtime even if these properties may occasionally be
violated by the design. Imagine a complex design and a set of
properties that cannot be proved due to scalability issues or other
reasons (e.g., third-party IP cores). In this setting, we are in good
faith that the properties hold but we need to have certainty. We would
like to automatically construct a component, called the \emph{shield},
and attach it to the design as illustrated in
Fig.~\ref{fig:attach_shield}. The shield monitors the input/output of
the design and corrects the erroneous output values instantaneously, but
only if necessary and as little as possible.
The shield ensures both \emph{correctness} and \emph{minimum
interference}. By correctness, we mean that the properties must be
satisfied by the combined system, even if they are occasionally violated
by the design. By minimum interference, we mean that the output of the
shield deviates from the output of the design only if necessary, and the
deviation is kept minimum. The latter requirement is important because
we want the design to retain other (non-critical) behaviors that are not
captured by the given set of properties. We argue that shield synthesis
can succeed even if model checking and reactive synthesis fail due to
scalability issues, because it has to enforce only a small set of
critical properties, regardless of the implementation details of a
complex design.
This paper makes two contributions. First, we define a general framework
for solving the shield synthesis problem for reactive hardware systems.
Second, we propose a new synthesis method, which automatically
constructs a shield from a set of safety properties. To minimize
deviations of the shield from the original design, we propose a new
notion called \emph{$k$-stabilization}: When the design arrives at a
state where a property violation becomes unavoidable for some possible
future inputs, the shield is allowed to deviate for at most $k$
consecutive steps. If a second violation happens during the $k$-step
recovery phase, the shield enters a \emph{fail-safe} mode where it only
enforces correctness, but no longer minimizes the deviation. We show
that the $k$-stabilizing shield synthesis problem can be reduced to
\emph{safety games}~\cite{Mazala01}. Following this approach, we present a
proof-of-concept implementation and give the first experimental
results.
Our work on shield synthesis can complement model checking by enforcing
any property that cannot be formally proved on a complex design. There
can be more applications. For example, we may not trust third-party IP
components in our system, but in this case, model checking cannot be
used because we do not have the source code. Nevertheless, a shield can
enforce critical interface assumptions of these IP components at run
time.
Shields may also be used to simplify certification. Instead of
certifying a complex design against critical requirements, we can
synthesize a shield to enforce them, regardless of the behavior of the
design. Then, we only need to certify this shield, or the synthesis
procedure, against the critical requirements.
Finally, shield synthesis is a promising new direction for synthesis in
general, because it has the strengths of reactive synthesis while
avoiding its weaknesses --- the set of critical properties can be small
and relatively easy to specify --- which implies scalability and
usability.
\noindent \textbf{Related work.}
Shield synthesis is different from recent works on reactive
synthesis~\cite{Pnueli89,BloemJPPS12,EhlersT14}, which revisited
Church's problem~\cite{Church63,Buchi69,Rabin72} on constructing correct
systems from logical specifications. Although there are some works on
runtime enforcement of properties in other
domains~\cite{Schneider00,LigattiBW09,FalconeFM12}, they are based on
assumptions that do not work for reactive hardware systems.
Specifically, Schneider~\cite{Schneider00} proposed a method that simply
halts a program in case of a violation. Ligatti et
al.~\cite{LigattiBW09} used edit automata to suppress or insert actions,
and Falcone et al.~\cite{FalconeFM12} proposed to buffer actions and
dump them once the execution is shown to be safe. None of these
approaches is appropriate for reactive systems where the shield must act
upon erroneous outputs on-the-fly, i.e., without delay and without
knowing what future inputs/outputs are. In particular, our shield
cannot insert or delete time steps, and cannot halt in the case
of a violation.
Methodologically, our new synthesis algorithm builds upon the existing
work on synthesis of robust systems~\cite{BloemCGHHJKK14}, which aims to
generate a complete design that satisfies as many properties of a
specification as possible if assumptions are violated. However, our
goal is to synthesize a shield component $S$, which can be attached to
any design $D$, to ensure that the combined system $(S\circ D)$
satisfies a given set of critical properties. Our method aims at
minimizing the ratio between shield deviations and property violations
by the design, but achieves it by solving pure safety games.
Furthermore, the synthesis method in \cite{BloemCGHHJKK14} uses
heuristics and user input to decide from which state to continue
monitoring the environmental behavior, whereas we use a subset
construction to capture all possibilities to avoid unjust verdicts by
the shield. We use the notion of $k$-stabilization to quantify the
shield deviation from the design, which has similarities to Ehlers and
Topcu's notion of $k$-resilience in robust synthesis~\cite{EhlersT14}
for GR(1) specifications~\cite{BloemJPPS12}. However, the context of
our work is different, and our $k$-stabilization limits the length of
the recovery period instead of tolerating bursts of up to $k$ glitches.
\noindent \textbf{Outline.}
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. We illustrate the
technical challenges and our solutions in Section~\ref{sec:ex} using an
example. Then, we establish notation in Section~\ref{sec:prelim}. We
formalize the problem in a general framework for shield synthesis in
Section~\ref{sec:frame}, and present our new method in
Section~\ref{sec:sol}. We present our experimental results in
Section~\ref{sec:exp} and, finally, give our conclusions in
Section~\ref{sec:conc}.
\section{Motivation}
\label{sec:ex}
In this section, we illustrate the challenges associated with shield
synthesis and then briefly explain our solution using an example.
We start with a traffic light controller that handles a single crossing
between a highway and a farm road. There are red (\textsf{r})<|fim_middle|> a specification, $\varphi^v \subseteq \varphi$ be the valid
subset, $d^\sigma$ be an OTDF, and $d^L$ be an LDF. A reactive system
$\mathcal{S}$ is an \emph{optimal generic shield} if and only if for all
${\overline{\sigma_I}} \!\in\! \Sigma_I^\omega$ and ${\overline{\sigma_O}} \!\in\!
\Sigma_O^\omega$,
\begin{align}
({\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}}) \!\in\! L(\varphi^v) \rightarrow &
\bigl(
d^L\bigl(~ L(\varphi),
{\overline{\sigma_I}} || \mathcal{S}({\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}})
~\bigr) = 0
\;\wedge \label{eq:kopt1}
\\ &
d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}, \mathcal{S}({\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}})) \leq
d^L(L(\varphi), {\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}})
\bigr)
. \label{eq:kopt2}
\end{align}
\end{definition}
\noindent
The implication means that we only consider traces that satisfy $\varphi^v$
since $\mathcal{D} \models \varphi^v$ is assumed. This can be exploited by
synthesis algorithms to find a more succinct shield.
Part~(\ref{eq:kopt1}) of the implied formula ensures correctness:
$\mathcal{D} \circ \mathcal{S}$ must satisfy $\varphi$.\footnote{Applying $d^L$
instead of ``$\subseteq L(\varphi)$'' adds flexibility: the user can
define $d^L$ in such a way that $d^L(L, \overline{\dletter}) = 0$ even if
$\overline{\dletter}\not\inL$ to allow such traces as well.}
Part~(\ref{eq:kopt2}) ensures minimum interference: ``small'' violations
result in ``small'' deviations. Def.~\ref{def:ogs} is designed to be
flexible: Different notions of minimum interference can be realized with
appropriate definitions of $d^\sigma$ and $d^L$. One realization will
be presented in Section~\ref{sec:sol}.
\begin{proposition}
An optimal generic shield $\mathcal{S}$ cannot deviate from the design's
output before a specification violation by the design $\mathcal{D}$ is
unavoidable.
\end{proposition}
\begin{proof}
If there has been a deviation $d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}, \mathcal{S}({\overline{\sigma_I}} ||
{\overline{\sigma_O}})) \neq 0$ on the finite input prefix $\overline{\dletter}$, but this
prefix can be extended into an infinite trace $\overline{\dletter}'$ such that
$d^L(L(\varphi), \overline{\dletter}') = 0$, meaning that a violation is
avoidable, then Part~(\ref{eq:kopt2}) of Def.~\ref{def:ogs} is violated
because of the (prefix-)monotonicity of $d^\sigma$ (the deviation can only
increase when the trace is extended), and the fact that $d^\sigma \leq
d^L$ is $\false$ if $d^\sigma\neq 0$.
\end{proof}
\section{Our Shield Synthesis Method}
\label{sec:sol}
In this section, we present a concrete realization of the shield
synthesis framework by defining OTDF and LDF in a practical way. We call
the resulting shield a \emph{$k$-stabilizing} generic shield. While our
framework works for arbitrary specifications, our realization assumes
safety specifications.
\subsection{$k$-Stabilizing Generic Shields}
A $k$-stabilizing generic shield is an optimal generic shield according
to Def.~\ref{def:ogs}, together with the following restrictions. When a
property violation by the design $\mathcal{D}$ becomes unavoidable (in the
worst case over future inputs), the shield $\mathcal{S}$ is allowed to
deviate from the design's outputs for at most $k$ consecutive time
steps, including the current step. Only after these $k$ steps, the next
violation is tolerated. This is based on the assumption that
specification violations are rare events. If a second violation happens
within the $k$-step recovery period, the shield enters a
\emph{fail-safe} mode, where it enforces the critical properties, but
stops minimizing the deviations.
More formally, a $k$-stabilizing generic shield requires the following
configuration of the OTDF and LDF functions:
\begin{enumerate}
\item The LDF $d^L(L(\varphi),\overline{\dletter}) $ is defined as follows:
Given a trace $\overline{\dletter} \in \Sigma^\omega$, its distance to
$L(\varphi)$ is $0$ initially, and increased to $\infty$ when the
shield enters the \emph{fail-safe} mode.
\item The OTDF function $d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}, {\overline{\sigma_O}}')$ returns $0$
initially, and is set to $\infty$ if ${\sigma_O}_i \neq
{\sigma_O}_i'$ outside of a $k$-step recovery period.
\end{enumerate}
To indicate whether the shield is in the fail-safe mode or a recovery
period, we add a counter $c\in \{0,\ldots,k\}$. Initially, $c$ is 0.
Whenever there is a property violation by the design, $c$ is set to $k$
in the next step. In each of the subsequent steps, $c$ decrements until
it reaches 0 again. The shield can deviate if the next state has $c>0$.
If a second violation happens when $c>1$, then the shield enters the
fail-safe mode. A $1$-stabilizing shield can only deviate in the
time step of the violation, and can never enter the fail-safe mode.
\subsection{Synthesizing $k$-Stabilizing Generic Shields}
\label{sec:k-stab}
The flow of our synthesis procedure is illustrated in
Fig.~\ref{fig:k-stab}. Let $\varphi = \{\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_l\}$ be the
critical safety specification, where each $\varphi_i$ is represented as
an automaton $\varphi_i = (Q_i, q_{0,i}, \Sigma, \delta_i,$ $F_i)$. The
synchronous product of these automata is again a safety automaton. We
use three product automata:
$\mathcal{Q} = (Q, q_{0}, \Sigma, \delta, F)$ is the product of
all properties in $\varphi$;
$\mathcal{V} = (V, v_{0}, \Sigma, \delta^v, F^v)$ is the product
of properties in $\varphi^v \subseteq \varphi$; and
$\mathcal{R} = (R, r_{0}, \Sigma, \delta^r, F^r)$ is the product
of properties in $\varphi\setminus\varphi^v$.
Starting from these automata, our shield synthesis procedure consists of
five steps.
\begin{figure}[tb]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.85\textwidth]{figs/k_stab_overview}
\caption{Outline of our $k$-stabilizing generic shield synthesis procedure.}
\label{fig:k-stab}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
\noindent
\textbf{Step 1. Constructing the Violation Monitor $\mathcal{U}$:}
From $\mathcal{R}$, which represents $\varphi\setminus\varphi^v$, we build
$\mathcal{U} = (U, u_0, \Sigma, \delta^u)$ to monitor property
violations by the design. The goal is to identify the latest point in
time from which a specification violation can still be corrected with a
deviation by the shield. This constitutes the start of the recovery
period.
The first phase of this construction (Step 1-a) is to consider the
automaton $\mathcal{R} = (R, r_{0}, \Sigma, \delta^r, F^r)$ as a
\emph{safety game} and compute its winning region $W^r\subseteq F^r$.
The meaning of $W^r$ is such that every reactive system
$\mathcal{D}\models(\varphi \setminus \varphi^v)$ must produce outputs in such a
way that the next state of $\mathcal{R}$ stays in $W^r$. Only when the
next state of $\mathcal{R}$ would be outside of $W^r$, our shield will
be allowed to interfere.
\begin{exa}
Consider the safety automaton $\mathcal{R}$ in Fig.~\ref{fig:win_ex},
where $i$ is an input, $o$ is an output, and $r_x$ is unsafe. The
winning region is $W=\{r_0\}$ because from $r_1$ the input $i$ controls
whether $r_x$ is visited. The shield must be allowed to deviate from
the original transition $r_0\rightarrow r_1$ if $o\neq i$. In $r_1$ it
is too late because visiting an unsafe state cannot be avoided any more,
given that the shield can modify the value of $o$ but not $i$. \qed
\end{exa}
\begin{figure}[tb]
\centering
\begin{minipage}{0.38\textwidth}
\scalebox{0.9}{\input{figs/win_example.tex}}
\caption{The safety automaton $\mathcal{R}$.}
\label{fig:win_ex}
\end{minipage}
\hspace{0.08\textwidth}
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
\scalebox{0.9}{\input{figs/dev_monitor.tex}}
\caption{The deviation monitor $\mathcal{T}$.}
\label{fig:dev_monitor}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}
The second phase (Step 1-b) is to expand the state space from $R$ to
$2^{R}$ via a subset construction. The rationale behind it is as
follows. If the design makes a mistake (i.e., picks outputs such that
$\mathcal{R}$ enters a state $r\not \in W^r$ from which the
specification cannot be enforced), we have to ``guess'' what the design
actually meant to do in order to find a state from which we can continue
monitoring its behavior. We follow a generous approach in order not to
treat the design unfairly: we consider all output letters that would
have avoided falling out of $W^r$, and continue monitoring the design
behavior from all the corresponding successor states in parallel. Thus,
$\mathcal{U}$ is essentially a subset construction of $\mathcal{R}$,
where a state $u\in U$ of $\mathcal{U}$ represents a set of states in
$\mathcal{R}$.
The third phase (Step 1-c) is to expand the state space of $\mathcal{U}$
by adding a counter $c\in\{0,\ldots,k\}$ as described in the previous
subsection, and adding a special fail-safe state $u_E$.
The final violation monitor is $\mathcal{U} = (U, u_0, \Sigma,
\delta^u)$, where $U = (2^{R} \times \{0, \ldots, k\}) \cup {u_E}$ is
the set of states, $u_0 = (\{r_0\}, 0)$ is the initial state, $\Sigma$
is the set of input letters, and $\delta^u$ is the next-state function,
which obeys the following rules:
\begin{enumerate}
\item $\delta^u(u_E, \sigma) = u_E$
(meaning that $u_E$ is a trap state), \label{eq:subset_s}
\item $\delta^u((u,c), \sigma) = u_E$ if $c>1$ and
$\forall r \in u: \delta^r(r,\sigma) \not\in W^r$,
\label{eq:subset_a}
\item $\delta^u((u,c), ({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O})) =
(\{r' \!\in\! W^r \mid \exists r\in u, {\sigma_O}' \in \Sigma_O
\scope \delta^r(r,({\sigma_I},{\sigma_O}')) = r'\}, k)$\\
if $c\leq 1$ and $\forall r \in u \scope
\delta^r(r,({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O})) \not\in W^r$,
and
\label{eq:subset_m}
\item $\delta^u((u,c), \sigma) \!=\!
(\{r'\!\in\! W^r |\exists r\!\in\! u \scope\delta^r(r,\sigma) = r'\},
\textsf{dec}(c))$
if $\exists r \!\in\! u \scope \delta^r(r,\sigma) \!\in\! W^r$,
where $\textsf{dec}(0) = 0$ and $\textsf{dec}(c) = c-1$ if $c>0$.
\label{eq:subset_n}
\end{enumerate}
Our construction sets $c=k$ whenever the design leaves the winning
region, and not when it enters an unsafe state. Hence, the shield
$\mathcal{S}$ can take remedial action as soon as the ``the crime is
committed'', before the damage is detected, which would have been too
late to correct the erroneous outputs of the design.
\begin{exa}
We illustrate the construction of $\mathcal{U}$ using the specification
from Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec},
\begin{wrapfigure}[10]{r}{0.42\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.7cm}
\begin{tabular}{l|cccccccc}
&1g- &1rg &-rr &0gg &0gr &0rg \\
\hline
H &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &HB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &H &HB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} \\
B &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &HFB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &H &F \\
F &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &FB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &FB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &F \\
HB &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &HFB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &H &F \\
FB &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &HFB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &H &F \\
HFB &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &B &HFB{\color{darkred}$\lightning$} &H &F \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{$\delta^u$ for the spec from Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}.}
\label{fig:traffic_subset}
\end{wrapfigure}
which is a safety automaton if we make all missing edges point to an
(additional) unsafe state. The winning region consists of all safe
states, i.e., $W^r = \{H,B,F\}$. The resulting violation monitor is
$\mathcal{U}=
(\{\text{H},\text{B},\text{F},\text{HB},\text{FB},\text{HFB}\}
\times\{0, \ldots, k\}\cup u_E, (\text{H},0), \Sigma, \delta^u)$, where
$\delta^u$ is illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_subset} as a table
(the graph would be messy), which lists the next state for all possible
present states as well as inputs and outputs by the design. Lightning
bolts denote specification
violations. The update of the counter $c$, which is not included in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_subset}, is as follows: whenever the design
commits a violation (indicated by lightning) and $c\leq 1$, then $c$ is
set to $k$. If $c > 1$ at the violation, the next state is $u_E$.
Otherwise, $c$ is decremented. \qed
\end{exa}
\noindent
\textbf{Step 2. Constructing the Validity Monitor $\mathcal{V'}$:}
From $\mathcal{V}= (V, v_{0}, \Sigma, \delta^v, F^v)$, which represents
$\varphi^v$, we build an automaton $\mathcal{V'}$ to monitor the validity
of $\varphi^v$ by solving a safety game on $\mathcal{V}$ and computing the
winning region $W^v\subseteq F^v$. We will use $W^v$ to increase the
freedom for the shield: since we assume that
$\mathcal{D}\models\varphi^v$, we are only interested in the cases where
$\mathcal{V}$ never leaves $W^v$. If it does, our shield is
allowed to behave arbitrarily from that point on.
We extend the state space from $V$ to $V'$ by adding a bit to
memorize if we have left the winning region $W^v$. Hence, the
validity monitor is defined as $\mathcal{V}' = (V', v_{0}', \Sigma,
{\delta^v}', {F^v}')$, where $V' = \mathbb{B} \times V$ is the set of states,
$v_{0}' = \{\false, v_0\}$ is the initial state,
${\delta^v}'((b,v),\sigma) = (b', \delta^v(v,\sigma))$, where
$b'=\true$ if $b=\true$ or $\delta^v(v,\sigma) \not \in W^v$, and
$b'=\false$ otherwise, and ${F^v}' = \{(b,v) \in V' \mid b=\false\}$.
\noindent
\textbf{Step 3. Constructing the Deviation Monitor $\mathcal{T}$:}
We build $\mathcal{T} = (T, t_0, \Sigma_O \times \Sigma_O, \delta^t)$
to monitor the deviation of the shield's output from the design's
output. Here, $T = \{t_0, t_1\}$ and $\delta^t(t, ({\sigma_O},
{\sigma_O}')) = t_0$ iff ${\sigma_O} = {\sigma_O}'$. That is,
$\mathcal{T}$ will be in $t_1$ if there was a deviation in the last time
step, and in $t_0$ otherwise. This deviation monitor is shown in
Fig.~\ref{fig:dev_monitor}.
\noindent
\textbf{Step 4. Constructing the Safety Game $\mathcal{G}$:}
Given the monitors $\mathcal{U},\mathcal{V'},\mathcal{T}$ and the
automaton $\mathcal{Q}$, which represents $\varphi$, we construct a safety
game $\mathcal{G} = (G, g_0, \Sigma_I \times \Sigma_O, \Sigma_O, $
$\delta^g, F^g)$, which is the synchronous product of $\mathcal{U}$,
$\mathcal{T}$, $\mathcal{V}'$ and $\mathcal{Q}$, such that $G= U \times
T \times V' \times Q$ is the state space, $g_0 = (u_0, t_0, v_0', q_0)$
is the initial state, $\Sigma_I\times\Sigma_O$ is the input of the
shield, $\Sigma_O$ is the output of the shield, $\delta^g$ is the
next-state function, and $F^g$ is the set of safe states, such that
$\delta^g\bigl((u, t, v', q), ({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O}),
{\sigma_O}'\bigr) = $
\[
\bigl( \delta^u(u,({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O})),
\delta^t(t,({\sigma_O}, {\sigma_O}')),
{\delta^v}'(v',({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O})),
\delta^q(q, ({\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O}'))
\bigr),
\]
and $F^g = \{(u, t, v', q)\in G \mid
v' \not\in {F^v}' \vee
((q \in F^q) \wedge (u=(w,0) \rightarrow t=t_0))
\}$.
In the definition of $F^g$, the term $v' \not\in {F^v}'$ reflects our
assumption that $\mathcal{D} \models \varphi^v$. If this assumption is
violated, then $v' \not\in {F^v}'$ will hold forever, and our shield is
allowed to behave arbitrarily. This is exploited by our synthesis
algorithm to find a more succinct shield by treating such states as
\emph{don't cares}. If $v' \in {F^v}'$, we require that $q \in F^q$,
i.e., it is a safe state in $\mathcal{Q}$, which ensures that the shield
output will satisfy $\varphi$. The last term ensures that the shield can
only deviate in the $k$-step recovery period, i.e., while $c\neq 0$ in
$\mathcal{U}$. If the design makes a second mistake within this period,
$\mathcal{U}$ enters $u_E$ and arbitrary deviations are allowed. Yet,
the shield will still enforce $\varphi$ in this mode (unless $\mathcal{D}
\not\models \varphi^v$).
\noindent
\textbf{Step 5. Solving the Safety Game:}
We use standard algorithms for safety games (cf. e.g.~\cite{Mazala01})
to compute a winning strategy $\rho$ for $\mathcal{G}$. Then, we
implement this strategy in a new reactive system $\mathcal{S} = (G, g_0,
\Sigma, \Sigma_O, \delta, \rho)$ with $\delta(g, \sigma) =
\delta^g(g, \sigma,\rho(g,\sigma))$. $\mathcal{S}$ is the
$k$-stabilizing generic shield. If no winning strategy exists, we
increase $k$ and try again. In our experiments, we start with $k=1$ and
then increase $k$ by 1 at a time.
\begin{theorem}
Let $\varphi = \{\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_l\}$ be a set of critical safety
properties $\varphi_i = (Q_i, {q_0}_i, $ $\Sigma, \delta_i,
F_i)$, and let $\varphi^v \subseteq \varphi$ be a subset of valid properties.
Let $|V| = \prod_{\varphi_i \in \varphi^v} |Q_i|$ be the cardinality
of the product of the state spaces of all properties of $\varphi^v$.
Similarly, let $|R| = \prod_{\varphi_i \not\in \varphi^v} |Q_i|$. A
$k$-stabilizing generic shield with respect to $\varphi \setminus \varphi^v$
and $\varphi^v$ can be synthesized in $O(k^2 \cdot 2^{2|R|} \cdot |V|^4
\cdot |R|^2)$ time
(if one exists).
\end{theorem}
\begin{proof}
Safety games can be solved in $O(x + y)$ time~\cite{Mazala01}, where $x$
is the number of states and $y$ is the number of edges in the game
graph. Our safety game $\mathcal{G}$ has at most $x = ((k+1) \cdot
2^{|R|} + 1) \cdot (2 \cdot |V|) \cdot 2 \cdot (|R| \cdot |V|)$ states,
so at most $y = x^2$ edges.
\end{proof}
\noindent
\textbf{Variations.}
The assumption that no second violation occurs within the recovery
period increases the chances that a $k$-stabilizing shield exists.
However, it can also be dropped with a slight
modification of $\mathcal{U}$ in Step 1: if a violation is committed and
$c > 1$, we set $c$ to $k$ instead of visiting $u_E$. This ensures
that synthesized shields will handle violations within a
recovery period normally.
The assumption that the design meant to give one of the allowed outputs
if a violation occurs can also be relaxed. Instead of continuing to
monitor the behavior from the allowed next states, we can just continue
from the set of all states, i.e., traverse to state $(R,k)$ in
$\mathcal{U}$. The assumption that $\mathcal{D}\models\varphi^v$, i.e., the
design satisfies some properties, is also optional. By removing
$\mathcal{V}$ and $\mathcal{V}'$, the construction can be
simplified at the cost of less implementation freedom for the shield.
By solving a B\"uchi\xspace game (which is potentially more expensive) instead
of a safety game, we can also eliminate the need to increase $k$
iteratively until a solution is found.
\ifextended
This is outlined in Appendix~\ref{sec:app}.
\else
This is outlined in the appendix of an extended version~\cite{extended}
of this paper.
\fi
\section{Experiments}
\label{sec:exp}
We have implemented the $k$-stabilizing shield synthesis procedure in a
proof-of-concept tool. Our tool takes as input a set of safety
properties, defined as automata in a simple textual representation. The
product of these automata, as well as the subset construction in Step 1
of our procedure is done on an explicit representation. The remaining
steps are performed symbolically using Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs).
Synthesis starts with $k=1$ and increments $k$ in case of
unrealizability until a user-defined bound is hit. Our tool is written
in Python and uses CUDD~\cite{Somenz95} as the BDD library. Our tool
can output shields in Verilog and SMV. It can also use the model checker
VIS~\cite{VIS96} to verify that the synthesized shield is correct.
We have conducted three sets of experiments, where the benchmarks are
(1) selected properties for a traffic light controller from the
VIS~\cite{VIS96} manual, (2) selected properties for an ARM AMBA bus
arbiter~\cite{BloemJPPS12}, and (3) selected properties from LTL
specification patterns~\cite{DwyerAC99}. None of these examples makes
use of $\varphi^v$, i.e., $\varphi^v$ is always empty. The source code of our
proof-of-concept synthesis tool as well as the input files and
instructions to reproduce our experiments are available for
download\footnote{\scriptsize\url{
http://www.iaik.tugraz.at/content/research/design_verification/others/}
}.
\noindent
\textbf{Traffic Light Controller Example.}
We used the safety specification in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec} as
input,
\begin{wrapfigure}[7]{r}{0.42\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.9cm}
\scalebox{0.95}{\input{figs/traffic_shield.tex}}
\vspace{-0.3cm}
\caption{Traffic light shield.}
\label{fig:traffic_shield}
\end{wrapfigure}
for which our tool generated a $1$-stabilizing shield within a fraction
of a second. The shield has 6 latches and 95 (2-input) multiplexers,
which is then reduced by ABC~\cite{BraytonM10} to 5 latches and 41
(2-input) AIG gates. However, most of the states are either unreachable
or equivalent. The behavior of the shield is illustrated in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_shield}. Edges are labeled with the inputs of the
shield. Red dashed edges denote situations where the output of the
shield is different from its inputs. The modified output is written
after the arrow. For all non-dashed edges, the input is just copied to
the output. Clearly, the states X, Y, and Z correspond to H, B, and F
in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}.
We also tested the synthesized shield using the traffic light controller
of~\cite{vlsi}, which also appeared in the user manual of
VIS~\cite{VIS96}. This controller has one input (\textsf{car}) from a
car sensor on the farm road, and uses a timer to control the length of
the different phases. We set the ``short'' timer period to one tick and
the ``long'' period to two ticks.
\begin{wrapfigure}[8]{r}{0.58\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.9cm}
\scalebox{0.8}{\input{figs/traffic_impl.tex}}
\caption{Traffic light implementation.}
\label{fig:traffic_impl}
\end{wrapfigure}
The resulting behavior without preemption is visualized in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_impl}, where nodes are labeled with names and
outputs, and edges are labeled with conditions on the inputs. The red
dashed arrow represents a subtle bug we introduced: if the last car on
the farm road exits the crossing at a rare point in time, then the
controller switches from \textsf{rg} to \textsf{gr} without passing
\textsf{rr}. This bug only shows up in very special situations, so it
can go unnoticed easily. Preemption is implemented by modifying both
directions to \textsf{r} without changing the state if $\textsf{p}=1$.
We introduced another bug here as well: only the highway is switched to
\textsf{r} if $\textsf{p}=1$, whereas the farm road is not. This bug can
easily go unnoticed as well, because the farm road is mostly red anyway.
The following trace illustrates how the synthesized shield handles these
errors:
\begin{center}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1.3pt}
\begin{tabular}{l|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c}\hline
Step &0 &1 &2 &3 &4 &5 &6 &7 &8 &9 &10&11&12 &13&14&15 \\
\hline
State in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec} (safety spec.)
&H &H &B &H &B &B &F &F &F,B&H &H &B &B &B &B &\ldots\\
State in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_impl} (buggy design)
&S0&S1&S2&S3&S4&S5&S6&S0 &S1 &S2&S3&S4&S5 &S8&S9&\ldots\\
State in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_shield} (shield)
&X &X &Y &X &Y &Y &Z &Z &Y &X &X &Y &Y &Y &Y &\ldots\\
Input (\textsf{p,car}) &00&11&01&01&01&01&00&00 &00 &01&01&00&10 &00&00&\ldots\\
Design output &gr&rr&gr&rr&rr&rg&rg&gr{\color{darkred}$\lightning$}&gr &gr&rr&rr&rg{\color{darkred}$\lightning$}&rr&rr&\ldots\\
Shield output &gr&rr&gr&rr&rr&rg&rg&rr &gr &gr&rr&rr&rr &rr&rr&\ldots\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\noindent
The first bug strikes at Step 7. The shield corrects it with output
\textsf{rr}. A $2$-stabilizing shield could also have chosen
\textsf{rg}, but this would have made a second deviation necessary in
the next step. Our shield is $1$-stabilizing, i.e., it deviates only at
the step of the violation. After this correction, the shield continues
monitoring the design from both state F and state B of
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}, as explained earlier, to detect future
errors. Yet, this uncertainty is resolved in the next step. The second
bug in Step 12 is simpler: outputting \textsf{rr} is the only way to
correct it, and the next state in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec} must be B.
When only considering the properties 1 and 2 from Section~\ref{sec:ex},
the synthesized shield has no latches and three AIG gates after
optimization with ABC~\cite{BraytonM10}.
\noindent
\textbf{ARM AMBA Bus Arbiter Example.}
We used properties of an ARM AMBA bus arbiter~\cite{BloemJPPS12} as
input to our shield synthesis tool. Due to page limit, we only present
the result on one example property, and then present the performance
results for other properties.
The property that we enforced was Guarantee 3 from the specification
of~\cite{BloemJPPS12}, which says that if a length-four locked burst
access starts, no other access can start until the end of this burst.
The safety automaton is shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:amba_g3}, where
\texttt{B}, \texttt{s} and \texttt{R} are short for $\texttt{hmastlock}
\wedge \texttt{HBURST=BURST4}$, \texttt{start}, and \texttt{HREADY},
respectively. Lower case signal names are outputs, and upper-cases are
inputs of the arbiter. S$_x$ is unsafe. S0 is the idle state waiting
for a burst to start ($\texttt{B} \wedge \texttt{s}$). The burst is over
if input \texttt{R} has been $\true$ $4$ times. State S$i$, where
$i=1,2,3,4$, means that \texttt{R} must be $\true$ for $i$ more times.
The counting includes the time step where the burst starts, i.e., where
S0 is left. Outside of S0, \texttt{s} is required to be $\false$.
\begin{figure}[tb]
\centering
\begin{minipage}{0.47\linewidth}
\vspace{-0.3cm}
\hspace{-1ex}
\scalebox{0.8}{\input{figs/amba_g3.tex}}
\vspace{-0.4cm}
\caption{Guarantee 3 from~\cite{BloemJPPS12}.}
\label{fig:amba_g3}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.507\linewidth}
\vspace{-2mm}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1.1pt}
\begin{tabular}{l|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c}\hline
Step &3 &4 &5 &6 &7 &8 &9 &10&11&12 \\
\hline
State in Fig.~\ref{fig:amba_g3}&S0&S4&S3&S2&S1 &S0&S0&S0&S0&\ldots\\
State in Design &S0&S3&S2&S1&S0 &S3&S2&S1&S0&\ldots\\
\texttt{B} &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &\ldots\\
\texttt{R} &0 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &1 &\ldots\\
\texttt{s} from Design &1 &0 &0 &0 &1{\color{darkred}$\lightning$}&0 &0 &0 &0 &\ldots\\
\texttt{s} from Shield &1 &0 &0 &0 &0 &0 &0 &0 &0 &\ldots\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Shield execution results.}
\label{fig:amba_g3_result}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}
Our tool generated a 1-stabilizing shield within a fraction of a second.
The shield has 8 latches and 142 (2-input) multiplexers, which is then
reduced by ABC~\cite{BraytonM10} to 4 latches and 77 AIG gates. We
verified it against an arbiter implementation for 2 bus masters, where
we introduced the following bug: the design does not check \texttt{R}
when the burst starts, but behaves as if \texttt{R} was $\true$. This
corresponds to removing the transition from S0 to S4 in
Fig.~\ref{fig:amba_g3}, and going to S3 instead. An execution trace is
shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:amba_g3_result}. The first burst starts with
$\texttt{s}=\true$ in Step 3. \texttt{R} is $\false$, so the design
counts wrongly. The erroneous output shows up in Step 7, where the
design starts the next burst, which is forbidden, and thus blocked by
the shield. The design now thinks that it has started a burst, so it
keeps $\texttt{s}=\false$ until \texttt{R} is $\true$ 4 times.
Actually, this burst start has been blocked by the shield, so the shield
waits in S0. Only after the suppressed burst is over, the components
are in sync again, and the next burst can start normally.
\begin{wraptable}[10]{r}{0.46\textwidth}
\centering
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{5pt}
\vspace{-5ex}
\caption{Performance for AMBA~\cite{BloemJPPS12}.}
\vspace{-0.3cm}
\label{tab:perf}
\scalebox{0.8}{\begin{tabular}{|lccccc|}
\hline
Property &$|Q|$ &$|I|$ &$|O|$ &$k$ &Time [sec] \\
\hline
G1 &3 &1 &1 &1 &0.1 \\
G1+2 &5 &3 &3 &1 &0.1 \\
G1+2+3 &12 &3 &3 &1 &0.1 \\
G1+2+4 &8 &3 &6 &2 &7.8 \\
G1+3+4 &15 &3 &5 &2 &65 \\
G2+3+4 &17 &3 &6 &? &$>$3600 \\
G1+2+3+5 &18 &3 &4 &2 &242 \\
G1+2+4+5 &12 &3 &7 &? &$>$3600 \\
G1+3+4+5 &23 &3 &6 &? &$>$3600 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}}
\end{wraptable}
To evaluate the performance of our tool, we ran a stress test with
increasingly larger sets of safety properties for the ARM AMBA bus
arbiter in~\cite{BloemJPPS12}. Table~\ref{tab:perf} summarizes the
results. The columns list the number of states, inputs, and outputs,
the minimum $k$ for which a $k$-stabilizing shield exists, and the
synthesis time in seconds. All experiments were performed on a machine
with an Intel i5-3320M CPU@2.6 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and a 64-bit Linux.
Time-outs (G2+3+4, G1+2+4+5 and G1+3+4+5) occurred only when the number
of states and input/output signals grew large. However, this should not
be a concern in practice because the set of critical properties of a
system is usually much smaller, e.g., often consisting of invariance
properties with a single state.
\begin{wraptable}[18]{r}{0.631\textwidth}
\centering
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1pt}
\vspace{-5ex}
\caption{Synthesis results for the LTL patterns~\cite{DwyerAC99}.}
\label{tab:dwyer}
\vspace{-2ex}
\scalebox{0.85}{
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|c||c|c|c|c|}
\hline
Nr. &Property &$b$&$|Q|$ &Time &\#Lat- &\#AIG- \\
& & & &[sec] &ches &Gates \\
\hline
1 &$\always \neg p$
&- &2 &0.01 &0 &0 \\
2 &$\eventually r \rightarrow (\neg p \until r)$
&- &4 &0.34 &2 &6 \\
3 &$\always(q \rightarrow \always(\neg p))$
&- &3 &0.34 &2 &6 \\
4 &$\always((q \wedge \neg r \wedge \eventually r) \rightarrow
(\neg p \until r))$
&- &4 &0.34 &1 &9 \\
5 &$\always(q \wedge \neg r \rightarrow (\neg p \weakuntil r))$
&- &3 &0.01 &2 &14 \\
6 &$\eventually p$
&0 &3 &0.34 &1 &1 \\
6 &$\eventually p$
&256&259 &33 &18 &134 \\
7 &$\neg r \weakuntil (p \wedge \neg r)$
&- &3 &0.05 &3 &11 \\
8 &$\always(\neg q) \vee \eventually(q \wedge \eventually p)$
&0 &3 &0.04 &3 &11 \\
8 &$\always(\neg q) \vee \eventually(q \wedge \eventually p)$
&4 &7 &0.04 &6 &79 \\
8 &$\always(\neg q) \vee \eventually(q \wedge \eventually p)$
&16 &19 &0.03 &10 &162 \\
8 &$\always(\neg q) \vee \eventually(q \wedge \eventually p)$
&64 &67 &0.37 &14 &349 \\
8 &$\always(\neg q) \vee \eventually(q \wedge \eventually p)$
&256&259 &34 &18 &890 \\
9 &$\always(q \wedge \neg r \rightarrow
(\neg r \weakuntil (p \wedge \neg r))) $
&- &3 &0.05 &2 &12 \\
10 &$\always(q \wedge \neg r \rightarrow
(\neg r \until (p \wedge \neg r))) $
&12 &14 &5.4 &14 &2901 \\
10 &$\always(q \wedge \neg r \rightarrow
(\neg r \until (p \wedge \neg r))) $
&14 &16 &38 &15 &6020 \\
10 &$\always(q \wedge \neg r \rightarrow
(\neg r \until (p \wedge \neg r))) $
&16 &18 &377 &18 &13140 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
}
\end{wraptable}
\noindent
\textbf{LTL Specification Patterns.}
Dwyer et al.~\cite{DwyerAC99} studied the frequently used LTL
specification patterns in verification. As an exercise, we applied our
tool to the first 10 properties from their list~\cite{LTLpattern-URL}
and summarized the results in Table~\ref{tab:dwyer}. For a property
containing liveness aspects (e.g., something must happen eventually), we
imposed a bound on the reaction time to obtain the safety
(bounded-liveness) property. The bound on the reaction time is shown in
Column~3. The last four columns list the number of states in the safety
specification, the synthesis time in seconds, and the shield size
(latches and AIG gates). Overall, our method runs sufficiently fast on
all properties and the resulting shield size is small. We also
investigated how the synthesis time increased with an increasingly
larger bound $b$. For Property 8 and Property 6, the run time and
shield size remained small even for large automata. For Property 10, the
run time and shield size grew faster, indicating room for further
improvement. As a proof-of-concept implementation, our tool has not yet
been optimized specifically for speed or shield size -- we leave such
optimizations for future work.
\section{Conclusions}
\label{sec:conc}
We have formally defined the shield synthesis problem for reactive
systems and presented a general framework for solving the problem. We
have also implemented a new synthesis procedure that solves a concrete
instance of this problem, namely the synthesis of $k$-stabilizing
generic shields. We have evaluated our new method on two hardware
benchmarks and a set of LTL specification patterns. We believe that our
work points to an exciting new direction for applying synthesis, because
the set of critical properties of a complex system tends to be small and
relatively easy to specify, thereby making shield synthesis scalable and
usable. Many interesting extensions and variants remain to be explored,
both theoretically and experimentally, in the future.
| or green
(\textsf{g}) lights for both roads. An input signal, denoted
$\textsf{p}\in\{0,1\}$, indicates whether an emergency vehicle is
approaching. The controller takes $\textsf{p}$ as input and returns
$\textsf{h,f}$ as output. Here, $\textsf{h}\in\{r,g\}$ and
$\textsf{f}\in\{r,g\}$ are the lights for highway and farm road,
respectively.
Although the traffic light controller interface is simple, the actual
implementation can be complex. For example, the controller may have to
be synchronized with other traffic lights, and it can have input sensors
for cars, buttons for pedestrians, and sophisticated algorithms to
optimize traffic throughput and latency based on all sensors, the time
of the day, and even the weather. As a result, the actual design may
become too complex to be formally verified. Nevertheless, we want to
ensure that a handful of safety critical properties are satisfied with
certainty. Below are three example properties:
\begin{enumerate}
\item The output \textsf{gg} --- meaning that both roads have green
lights --- is never allowed.
\item If an emergency vehicle is approaching ($\textsf{p}=1$), the
output must be \textsf{rr}.
\item The output cannot change from \textsf{gr} to \textsf{rg}, or
vice versa, without passing \textsf{rr}.
\end{enumerate}
We want to synthesize a safety shield that can be attached to any
implementation of this traffic light controller, to enforce these
properties at run time.
In a first exercise, we only consider enforcing Properties 1 and 2.
These are simple invariance properties without any temporal aspects.
Such properties can be represented by a truth table as shown in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec2} (left). We use 0 to encode \textsf{r}, and
1 to encode \textsf{g}. Forbidden behavior is marked in bold red. The
shield must ensure both correctness and
minimum interference. That is, it should only change the output for red
entries.
\begin{wrapfigure}[9]{r}{0.52\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.7cm}
\begin{minipage}{0.21\textwidth}
\centering
{\scriptsize \tt
\begin{tabular}{ccc|cc}\hline
\textsf{p}~ & \textsf{h}~ & \textsf{f}~ & ~\textsf{h'} &
~\textsf{f'} \\\hline
0~ & 0~ & 0~ & ~0 & 0\\
0~ & 0~ & 1~ & ~0 & 1\\
0~ & 1~ & 0~ & ~1 & 0\\
0~ & \textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &\textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &
~\textcolor{blue}{\bf 1} & \textcolor{blue}{\bf 0}\\
\hline
1~ & 0~ & 0~ & ~0 & 0\\
1~ & \textcolor{darkred}{\bf 0}~ &\textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &
~\textcolor{blue}{\bf 0} & \textcolor{blue}{\bf 0}\\
1~ & \textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &\textcolor{darkred}{\bf 0}~ &
~\textcolor{blue}{\bf 0} & \textcolor{blue}{\bf 0}\\
1~ & \textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &\textcolor{darkred}{\bf 1}~ &
~\textcolor{blue}{\bf 0} & \textcolor{blue}{\bf 0}\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
}
\end{minipage}
$\Rightarrow$
\begin{minipage}{.27\textwidth}
\centering
{\scriptsize \tt
$\mathsf{h' = \neg p \wedge h}$\\
$\mathsf{f' = \neg p \wedge \neg h \wedge f}$\\
}
\verb' '\\
\scalebox{.5}{\input{shield_spec2.pstex_t}}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Enforcing Properties 1 and 2.}
\label{fig:traffic_spec2}
\end{wrapfigure}
In particular, it should not ignore the design and hard-wire
the output to \textsf{rr}. When $\mathsf{p=1}$ but the output is not
$\mathsf{rr}$, the shield must correct the output to $\mathsf{rr}$.
When $\mathsf{p=0}$ but the output is \textsf{gg}, the shield must turn
the original output \textsf{gg} into either \textsf{rg}, \textsf{gr}, or
\textsf{rr}. Assume that \textsf{gr} is chosen. As illustrated in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec2} (right), we can construct the transition
functions $h'=\neg p\wedge h$ and $f'=\neg p \wedge \neg h \wedge f$, as
well as the shield circuit accordingly.
Next, we consider enforcing Properties 1--3 together. Property 3
brings in a temporal aspect, so a simple truth table does not suffice
any more. Instead, we express the properties by an automaton, which is
shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}. Edges are labeled by values of
$\textsf{phf}$, where $\mathsf{p}\in\{0,1\}$ is the controller's input
and $\mathsf{h,f}$ are outputs for highway and farm road.
\begin{wrapfigure}[6]{r}{0.45\textwidth}
\vspace{-0.9cm}
\scalebox{0.95}{\input{figs/traffic_spec.tex}}
\caption{Traffic light specification.}
\label{fig:traffic_spec}
\end{wrapfigure}
There are three non-error states: H denotes the state where highway has
the green light, F denotes the state where farm road has the green
light, and B denotes the state where both have red lights. There is
also an error state, which is not shown. Missing edges lead to this
error state, denoting forbidden situations, e.g., \textsf{1gr} is not
allowed in state H.
Although the automaton still is not a complete specification, the
corresponding shield can prevent catastrophic failures. By
automatically generating a small shield as shown in
Fig.~\ref{fig:attach_shield}, our approach has the advantage of
combining the functionality and performance of the aggressively
optimized implementation with guaranteed safety.
While the shield for Property 1 and 2 could be realized by purely
combinational logic, this is not possible for the specification in
Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}. The reason is the temporal aspect brought
in by Property 3.
For example, if we are in state F and observe \textsf{0gg}, which is not
allowed, the shield has to make a correction in the output signals to
avoid the violation. There are two options: changing the output from
\textsf{gg} to either \textsf{rg} or \textsf{rr}. However, this fix may
result in the next state being either B or F. The question is, without
knowing what the future inputs/outputs are, how do we decide \emph{from
which state the shield should continue to monitor} the behavior of the
design in order to best detect and correct future violations? If the
shield makes a wrong guess now, it may lead to a suboptimal
implementation that causes unnecessarily large deviation in the future.
To solve this problem, we adopt the most conservative approach. That is,
we assume that the design $\mathcal{D}$ meant to give one of the allowed
outputs, so either \textsf{rr} or \textsf{rg}. Thus, our shield
continues to monitor the design from both F and B. Technically, this is
achieved by a form of subset construction (see Sec.~\ref{sec:k-stab}),
which tracks all possibilities for now, and then gradually refines its
knowledge with future observations. For example, if the next
observation is \textsf{0gr}, we assume that the design $\mathcal{D}$ meant
\textsf{rr} earlier, and so it must be in B and traverse to H.
If it were in F, we could only have explained \textsf{0gr} by assuming a
second violation, which is less optimistic than we would like to be.
In this work, we assume that a second violation occurs only if an
observation is inconsistent with \emph{all} states that it could
possibly be in. For example, if the next observation is not
\textsf{0gr} but \textsf{1rg}, which is neither allowed in F nor in B,
we know that a second violation occurs. Yet, after observing
\textsf{1rg}, we can be sure that we have reached the state B, because
starting from both F and B, with input $\textsf{p}=1$, the only allowed
output is \textsf{rr}, and the next state is always B.
In this sense, our construction implements an ``innocent until proved
guilty'' philosophy, which is key to satisfy the \emph{minimum
interference} requirement.
To bound the deviation of the shield when a property violation becomes
unavoidable, we require the shield to deviate for at most $k$
consecutive steps after the initial violation. We shall formalize this
notion of \emph{$k$-stabilization} in subsequent sections and present
our synthesis algorithm.
For the safety specification in Fig.~\ref{fig:traffic_spec}, our method
would reduce the shield synthesis problem into a set of \emph{safety
games}, which are then solved using standard techniques
(cf.~\cite{Mazala01}). We shall present the synthesis results in
Section~\ref{sec:exp}.
\section{Preliminaries}
\label{sec:prelim}
We denote the Boolean domain by $\mathbb{B}=\{\true,\false\}$, denote the set of
natural numbers by $\mathbb{N}$, and abbreviate $\mathbb{N}\cup\{\infty\}$ by
$\mathbb{N}^\infty$.
We consider a reactive system with a finite set
$I=\{i_1,\ldots,i_m\}$ of Boolean inputs and a finite set
$O=\{o_1,\ldots,o_n\}$ of Boolean outputs. The input alphabet is
$\Sigma_I=2^I$, the output alphabet is $\Sigma_O=2^O$, and
$\Sigma=\Sigma_I \times \Sigma_O$. The set of finite (infinite) words
over $\Sigma$ is denoted by $\Sigma^*$ ($\Sigma^\omega$), and
$\Sigma^{*,\omega} = \Sigma^* \cup \Sigma^\omega$. We will also refer
to words as \emph{(execution) traces}. We write $|\overline{\dletter}|$ for the
length of a trace $\overline{\dletter}\in \Sigma^{*,\omega}$. For ${\overline{\sigma_I}} = x_0
x_1 \ldots \in \Sigma_I^\omega$ and ${\overline{\sigma_O}} = y_0 y_1 \ldots \in
\Sigma_O^\omega$, we write ${\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}}$ for the
composition $(x_0,y_0) (x_1,y_1) \ldots \in \Sigma^\omega$. A set $L
\subseteq \Sigma^\omega$ of infinite words is called a \emph{language}.
We denote the set of all languages as $\mathcal{L} = 2^{\Sigma^\omega}$.
\noindent
\textbf{Reactive Systems.}
A \emph{reactive system} $\mathcal{D} = (Q, q_0, \Sigma_I,
\Sigma_O, \delta, \lambda)$ is a Mealy machine, where $Q$ is a
finite set of states, $q_0\in Q$ is the initial state, $\delta:
Q \times \Sigma_I \rightarrow Q$ is a complete transition
function, and $\lambda: Q \times \Sigma_I \rightarrow \Sigma_O$
is a complete output function. Given the input trace ${\overline{\sigma_I}} = x_0
x_1 \ldots \in \Sigma_I^\omega$, the system $\mathcal{D}$ produces the
output trace ${\overline{\sigma_O}} = \mathcal{D}({\overline{\sigma_I}}) = \lambda(q_0, x_0)
\lambda(q_1, x_1) \ldots \in \Sigma_O^\omega$, where $q_{i+1} =
\delta(q_i, x_i)$ for all $i \ge 0$. The set of words produced by
$\mathcal{D}$ is denoted $L(\mathcal{D}) = \{{\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}} \in
\Sigma^\omega \mid \mathcal{D}({\overline{\sigma_I}}) = {\overline{\sigma_O}}\}$. We also refer to
a reactive system $\mathcal{D}$ as a \emph{(hardware) design}.
Let $\mathcal{D} = (Q, q_0, \Sigma_I, \Sigma_O, \delta, \lambda)$
and $\mathcal{D}' = (Q', q_0', \Sigma, \Sigma_O, \delta',
\lambda')$ be reactive systems. Their serial composition is constructed
by feeding the input and output of $\mathcal{D}$ to $\mathcal{D}'$ as input. We
use $\mathcal{D} \circ \mathcal{D}'$ to denote such a composition
$(\hat{Q}, \hat{q_0}, \Sigma_I, \Sigma_O, \hat{\delta},
\hat{\lambda})$, where
$\hat{Q} = Q \times Q'$,
$\hat{q_0} = (q_0, q_0')$,
$\hat{\delta}((q,q'),{\sigma_I}) = (\delta(q,{\sigma_I}),
\delta'(q',({\sigma_I},\lambda(q,{\sigma_I}))))$, and
$\hat{\lambda}((q,q'),{\sigma_I}) =
\lambda'(q',({\sigma_I},\lambda(q,{\sigma_I})))$.
\noindent
\textbf{Specifications.}
A \emph{specification} $\varphi$ defines a set $L(\varphi) \subseteq
\Sigma^\omega$ of allowed traces. A specification $\varphi$ is
\emph{realizable} if there exists a design $\mathcal{D}$ that realizes it.
$\mathcal{D}$ \emph{realizes} $\varphi$, written $\mathcal{D} \models \varphi$, iff
$L(\mathcal{D}) \subseteq L(\varphi)$.
We assume that $\varphi$ is a (potentially incomplete) set of
\emph{properties} $\{\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_l\}$ such that $L(\varphi) =
\bigcap_i L(\varphi_i)$, and a design satisfies $\varphi$ iff it
satisfies all its properties.
In this work, we are concerned with a \emph{safety} specification
$\varphi^s$, which is represented by an automaton $\varphi^s = (Q,
q_0, \Sigma, \delta, F)$, where $\Sigma = \Sigma_I\cup\Sigma_O$,
$\delta : Q \times \Sigma \rightarrow Q$, and $F\subseteq
Q$ is a set of safe states. The \emph{run} induced by trace
$\overline{\dletter} = \sigma_0 \sigma_1 \ldots \in \Sigma^\omega$ is the state
sequence $\overline{q} = q_0 q_1 \ldots $ such that $q_{i+1} =
\delta(q_i, \sigma_i)$. Trace $\overline{\dletter}$ (of a design $\mathcal{D}$)
\emph{satisfies} $\varphi^s$ if the induced run visits only the safe
states, i.e., $\forall i\geq 0 \scope q_i \in F$. The \emph{language}
$L(\varphi^s)$ is the set of all traces satisfying $\varphi^s$.
\noindent
\textbf{Games.}
A (2-player, alternating) \emph{game} is a tuple $\mathcal{G} = (G,
g_0, \Sigma_I, \Sigma_O, \delta, \mathsf{win})$, where $G$ is a
finite set of game states, $g_0 \in G$ is the initial state,
$\delta: G \times \Sigma_I \times \Sigma_O \rightarrow G$
is a complete transition function, and $\mathsf{win}: G^\omega
\rightarrow \mathbb{B}$ is a winning condition. The game is played by two
players: the system and the environment. In every state $g\in G$
(starting with $g_0$), the environment first chooses an input letter
${\sigma_I} \in \Sigma_I$, and then the system chooses some output
letter ${\sigma_O} \in \Sigma_O$. This defines the next state $g' =
\delta(g,{\sigma_I}, {\sigma_O})$, and so on. The resulting (infinite)
sequence $\overline{g} = g_0 g_1 \ldots$ of game states is called a
\emph{play}. A play is \emph{won} by the system iff
$\mathsf{win}(\overline{g})$ is $\true$.
A \emph{safety game} defines $\mathsf{win}$ via a set $F^g\subseteq G$ of
safe states: $\mathsf{win}(g_0 g_1 \ldots)$ is $\true$ iff $\forall i \geq 0
\scope g_i \in F^g$, i.e., if only safe states are visited.
A (memoryless) \emph{strategy} for the system is a function $\rho:
G \times \Sigma_I \rightarrow \Sigma_O$. A strategy is
\emph{winning} for the system if all plays $\overline{g}$ that can be
constructed when defining the outputs using the strategy satisfy
$\mathsf{win}(\overline{g})$. The \emph{winning region} is the set of states
from which a winning strategy exists. We will use safety games to
synthesize a shield, which implements the winning strategy in a new
reactive system $\mathcal{S} = (G, q_0, \Sigma_I, \Sigma_O,
\delta', \rho)$ with $\delta'(g,{\sigma_I}) =
\delta(g,{\sigma_I},\rho(g,{\sigma_I}))$.
\section{The Shield Synthesis Framework}
\label{sec:frame}
We define a general framework for shield synthesis in this section
before presenting a concrete realization of this framework in the next
section.
\begin{definition}[Shield]
Let $\mathcal{D} = (Q, q_0, \Sigma_I, \Sigma_O, \delta, \lambda)$
be a design, $\varphi$ be a set of properties, and $\varphi^v\subseteq \varphi$
be a valid subset such that $\mathcal{D} \models \varphi^v$. A reactive system
$\mathcal{S} = (Q', q_0', \Sigma, \Sigma_O, \delta', \lambda')$ is
a \emph{shield} of $\mathcal{D}$ with respect to $(\varphi\setminus\varphi^v)$
iff $(\mathcal{D} \circ \mathcal{S}) \models \varphi$.
\end{definition}
\noindent
Here, the design is known to satisfy $\varphi^v\subseteq \varphi$.
Furthermore, we are in good faith that $\mathcal{D}$ also satisfies $\varphi
\setminus \varphi^v$, but it is not guaranteed. We synthesize $\mathcal{S}$,
which reads the input and output of $\mathcal{D}$ while correcting its
erroneous output as illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:attach_shield}.
\begin{definition}[Generic Shield]
Given a set $\varphi = \varphi^v \cup (\varphi\setminus\varphi^v)$ of properties.
A reactive system $\mathcal{S}$ is a \emph{generic shield} iff it is a
shield of \emph{any} design $\mathcal{D}$ such that $\mathcal{D} \models
\varphi^v$.
\end{definition}
\noindent
A generic shield must work for any design $\mathcal{D} \models \varphi^v$.
Hence, the shield synthesis procedure does not need to consider the
design implementation. This is a realistic assumption in many
applications, e.g., when the design $\mathcal{D}$ comes from the third
party. Synthesis of a generic shield also has a scalability advantage
since the design $\mathcal{D}$, even if available, can be too complex to
analyze, whereas $\varphi$ often contains only a small set of critical
properties. Finally, a generic shield is more robust against design
changes, making it attractive for safety certification. In this work,
we focus on the synthesis of generic shields.
Although the shield is defined with respect to $\varphi$ (more
specifically, $\varphi\setminus\varphi^v$), we must refrain from ignoring the
design completely while feeding the output with a replacement circuit.
This is not desirable because the original design may satisfy additional
(non-critical) properties that are not specified in $\varphi$ but should
be retained as much as possible. In general, we want the shield to
deviate from the design \emph{only if necessary, and as little as
possible}. For example, if $\mathcal{D}$ does not violate $\varphi$, the
shield $\mathcal{S}$ should keep the output of $\mathcal{D}$ intact. This
rationale is captured by our next definitions.
\begin{definition}[Output Trace Distance Function]
An output trace distance function (OTDF) is a function $d^\sigma:
\Sigma_O^{*,\omega} \times \Sigma_O^{*,\omega} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}^{\infty}$ such
that
\begin{enumerate}
\item $d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}},{\overline{\sigma_O}}') = 0$
when ${\overline{\sigma_O}} = {\overline{\sigma_O}}'$;
\item $d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}{\sigma_O}, {\overline{\sigma_O}}'{\sigma_O}') =
d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}},{\overline{\sigma_O}}') $
when ${\sigma_O} = {\sigma_O}'$, and
\item $d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}{\sigma_O}, {\overline{\sigma_O}}'{\sigma_O}') >
d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}},{\overline{\sigma_O}}') $
when ${\sigma_O} \neq {\sigma_O}'$.
\end{enumerate}
\end{definition}
\noindent
An OTDF measures the difference between two output sequences (of the
design $\mathcal{D}$ and the shield $\mathcal{S}$). The definition requires
monotonicity with respect to prefixes: when comparing trace prefixes
with increasing length, the distance can only become larger.
\begin{definition}[Language Distance Function]
A language distance function (LDF) is a function $d^L: \mathcal{L}
\times \Sigma^\omega \rightarrow \mathbb{N}^{\infty}$ such that
$\forall L \in \mathcal{L}, \overline{\dletter} \in \Sigma^\omega \scope
\overline{\dletter} \in L \rightarrow d^L(L, \overline{\dletter}) = 0$.
\end{definition}
\noindent
An LDF measures the severity of specification violations by the design
by mapping a language (of $\varphi$) and a trace (of $\mathcal{D}$) to a
number. Given a trace $\overline{\dletter}\in\Sigma^\omega$, its distance to
$L(\varphi)$ is 0 if $\overline{\dletter}$ satisfies $\varphi$. Greater distances
indicate more severe specification violations. An OTDF can (but does
not have to) be defined via an LDF by taking the minimum output distance
between $\overline{\dletter} = ({\overline{\sigma_I}} ||{\overline{\sigma_O}})$ and any trace in the
language $L$:
$$d^L(L, {\overline{\sigma_I}} ||{\overline{\sigma_O}}) =
\left\{
\begin{array}{ll}
\min\limits_{{\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}}' \in L}
d^\sigma({\overline{\sigma_O}}', {\overline{\sigma_O}})
&\quad\text{ if } \exists {\overline{\sigma_O}}'\in \Sigma_O^\omega \scope~
({\overline{\sigma_I}}||{\overline{\sigma_O}}') \in L \\
0
&\quad\text{ otherwise.}
\end{array}
\right.
$$
The input trace is ignored in $d^\sigma$ because the design $\mathcal{D}$ can
only influence the output. If no alternative output trace makes the
word part of the language, the distance is set to $0$ to express that it
cannot be the design's fault. If $L$ is defined by a realizable
specification $\varphi$, this cannot happen anyway, since $\forall
{\overline{\sigma_I}}\in \Sigma_I^\omega \scope \exists {\overline{\sigma_O}}\in
\Sigma_O^\omega \scope ({\overline{\sigma_I}} || {\overline{\sigma_O}}) \in L(\varphi)$ is a
necessary condition for the realizability of $\varphi$.
\begin{definition}[Optimal Generic Shield]
\label{def:ogs}
Let $\varphi$ be | 6,172 |
Will Walmart Raise Its Dividend in 2020?
Investors have had to settle for lackluster payout increases in recent years, but could new growth be more rewarding for shareholders?
Dan Caplinger
(TMFGalagan)
Dec 5, 2019 at 7:32AM
Dan Caplinger has been a contract writer for the Motley Fool since 2006. As the Fool's Director of Investment Planning, Dan oversees much of the personal-finance and investment-planning content published daily on Fool.com. With a background as an estate-planning attorney and independent financial consultant, Dan's articles are based on more than 20 years of experience from all angles of the financial world. Follow @DanCaplinger
Follow @DanCaplinger
It's been decades since Walmart (NYSE:WMT) changed the retail world forever. With its emphasis on rock-bottom prices for consumers, Walmart's big-box store locations spread quickly across the nation. Even now, Walmart remains a top employer among global businesses and still plays a dominant role in how millions of shoppers get the goods they want at prices they can afford.
More recently, though, Walmart has had to deal with a new disruptive influence on the retail industry. The rise of e-commerce challenged Walmart's brick-and-mortar store network, and the company has had to respond to competitive pressure by bulking up its own online presence. Although Walmart's strategy has borne some<|fim_middle|> payout by 20% to 40%.
WMT Dividend data by YCharts.
Yet Walmart has chosen to moderate its pace of dividend growth considerably. Starting in 2014, Walmart has limited its dividend increases to just $0.01 per share, which has worked out to around 2% per year.
A return to growth
Walmart has a fully mature business, but it's done what most large companies struggle to achieve: return to a faster growth trajectory. After years of stagnant performance, Walmart has seen its overall revenue start to rise more quickly again. Moreover, despite significant investment in building out its e-commerce capabilities, net income is climbing back toward levels last seen early in the 2010s, with the potential for even greater gains to come.
Image source: Walmart.
Some of Walmart's success has stemmed from efforts to pull customers back into its stores. The rise of the company's grocery business has given shoppers a reason to visit its store locations on a regular basis, giving them more chances to shop throughout the rest of its supercenters. Efforts to compete by offering greater assortments of fresh food have paid off for Walmart.
Yet Walmart has also relied on increasing its efficiency, both in stores and through its e-commerce portal. Commitments to deliver products to shoppers more quickly either through direct shipping or options like in-store pickup have resonated well with its customer base. With the holiday season in full gear, Walmart has plans to keep giving customers the convenience and low prices they demand from the retail giant.
Will Walmart give investors a bigger dividend increase in 2020?
Walmart has used more of its available capital to reinvest into its business, and shareholders like the results that they're seeing in the retailer's fundamental performance. As long as Walmart has profitable ways to put its cash to work, it's less likely to deliver huge dividend boosts to shareholders. Because of that, dividend investors should expect Walmart to continue its past practice of giving them just a $0.01 per share boost to $0.54 per share each quarter in 2020. That won't make the stock's dividend yield much more attractive, but investors won't care if the stock price keeps rising at its recent pace. | success recently, dividend investors still wonder whether they'll be able to participate more fully in Walmart's rebound with larger payout increases than they've gotten in recent years.
Here, we'll take a closer look at Walmart and whether shareholders can expect higher dividends in 2020.
Dividend stats on Walmart
Current Stat
Current quarterly dividend per share
Current yield
Number of consecutive years with dividend increases
Last increase
Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Last increase refers to ex-dividend date.
How Walmart's dividend growth slowed to a crawl
With nearly half a century of annual dividend increases, income investors have to be pleased with Walmart's track record. Yet those who rely on dividends haven't liked the trends that they've seen in the recent past.
When you look back to the early part of Walmart's history, dividend investors clearly benefited from the growth of the business. Double-digit percentage dividend increases happened frequently during the 1980s and 1990s, and there were some years during the 2000s and early 2010s when Walmart chose to boost its quarterly | 228 |
Comment by Juan F Martinez on July 7, 2019 at 6:39pm
Evidence of the Africa Roll and Mediterranean dropping. Conil de la Frontera, south of Cadiz, SPAIN 7-6-2019
https://www.lavozdigital.es/cadiz/janda/lvdi-tsunami-conil-afelio-2...
Comment by Juan F Martinez on July 17, 2018 at 3:02pm
Five-foot TSUNAMI strikes Spanish resorts in Majorca and Menorca deluging roads and flooding beach bars and terraces 7-16-2018
Wave measuring five feet hit Ciutadella on west coast of Menorca on Monday
Seawater flooded bars by the coast in Andratx, and covered beachside roads
Boat owners on Majorca's south west coast were filmed trying to save their boats
The huge wave has been identified as a meteotsunami, which is caused by disturbances in air pressure at sea
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5959831/Mini-TSUNAMI-strike...
Comment by Juan F Martinez on July 9, 2018 at 12:17am
Israel - Three Earthquakes today, same location PREDICTED by ZetaTalk http://www.zetatalk.com/info/tinfo24t.htm
Magnitude ML 3.9 + 2 = ~M6
Region DEAD SEA REGION
Distances 99 km SW of Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic / pop: 1,570,000 / local time: 16:30:48.5 201<|fim_middle|>auteng, South Africa, today, April 1, 2018. Another impressive sinkhole and crumbling of a neighborhood
Video: https://www.facebook.com/SevereWeatheramerica/videos/1724403160951408/
Comment by jorge namour on March 23, 2018 at 5:23pm
Campi Flegrei - After the NATO also the observatory goes away from the red zone! Should we worry? VOLCANO- ITALY
http://terrarealtime.blogspot.com.ar/2018/03/campi-flegrei-dopo-la-...
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...
The citizens remain in the red Flegrea zone, but to leave is the seat of the Vesuvius Observatory
because in via Diocleziano "in case of eruption of the caldera it would not be safe"
It's not a joke. All true, all confirmed to the Ansa agency by Carlo Doglioni president Ingv (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology).
The need for a move has emerged in recent months, in fact in the event of eruption of the caldera the institute could no longer operate precisely because in the off-limits area from which the inhabitants would be removed. "In Naples - explains Doglioni - the red zone is so vast that it is difficult to find a place that would not be affected in the event of an eruption of the Campi Flegrei".
Naples earthquake: fear in Pozzuoli, Bagnoli and Agnano: seismic swarm in the Phlegraean Fields, roars and shocks felt by the population [LIVE] ITALY
http://www.meteoweb.eu/foto/terremoto-pozzuoli-napoli/id/1061040/#1
Earthquake shocks were felt by the population of Pozzuoli, in the province of Naples: very superficial, linked to the activity of the Phlegraean Fields. Updates in real time
The rumbles and earthquakes have been felt by the population of Pozzuoli , Bagnoli , Agnano and Naples . They are very superficial shocks, related to the activity of the Campi Flegrei . The magnitude is not high, but shocks occur a few hundred meters deep. Numerous reports come from the Toiano district, via Pisciarelli and Agnano (the Solfatara area), from Via Campana, from Arcofelice and from the Flegrean municipality of Quarto.
The mayor of Pozzuoli, Vincenzo Figliolia , in a post published on his Facebook page, explains that " a seismic swarm is underway " and claims to be " in contact with the Vesuvian Observatory ", Neapolitan section of Ingv. The Observatory, reports Figliolia , " invites us not to create alarmism and panic. The Observatory is monitoring the activity to ensure our safety. Everything would fall under the dynamics of the yellow alert state of the Campi Flegrei caldera, in the normal activity of the territory ", he concludes.
Here are the data published by the INGV :
2.34 pm - magnitude 0.4 - hypocenter at 0.5km depth
3:09 pm - magnitude 2.4 - hypocenter at 2.5km depth
Strong earthquake in the lower Tyrrhenian, epicenter right on the submerged volcano Marsili [MAPS and DATA INGV] - ITALY
Stromboli there has been a very strong explosion March 7, 2018
Strong earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, exactly where the submerged Marsili volcano is located. A few hours ago the strong explosion of Stromboli, while a small seismic swarm has been in place for 48 hours on Etna
A strong earthquake of magnitude 4.4 struck the Tyrrhenian Sea at 9.15 pm tonight. The shock occurred in the volcano Marsili, the great "monster" submerged in the heart of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The shock was very deep, with a hypocenter of 389km , and for this was not felt by the population:
A few hours ago, in the nearby Stromboli there has been a very strong explosion that has frightened the citizens of the Tyrrhenian Calabria and particularly of the Tropea area, where a strong roar has arrived with a tremor of the ground.
http://www.meteoweb.eu/2018/03/stromboli-esplosione-boato-tremore-c...
Moreover, in the last 48 hours a small seismic swarm has been activated on Etna, with dozens of shocks of moderate magnitude (the strongest 2.4) on the north / west side of the volcano, in the Bronte area.
In the lower Tyrrhenian there are often such deep earthquakes where the oceanic lithosphere sinks beneath the continental lithosphere.
Comment by Ovidiu Pricopi on March 11, 2018 at 12:08am
Mount Etna, one of the word's most active volcanoes, sparked fears of a fiery eruption on Thursday after a rapid succession of powerful tremors rocked the fiery mountain. I think that Mediterranean ADJUST after Africa tectonic plate being so active : like the tremors in Canary , tectonic cracks in Arabia Peninsula , quakes on the African rift shows from Malawi region. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/929538/volcano-mount-etna-erup... | 8-07-08
30 km NE of Nazareth, Israel / pop: 64,800 / local time: 16:30:48.5 2018-07-08
8 km N of Tiberias, Israel / pop: 39,800 / local time: 16:30:48.5 2018-07-08
Magnitude MD 3.0 + 2 = ~M5
Distances 100 km SW of Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic / pop: 1,570,000 / local time: 23:04:54.5 2018-07-08
7 km NE of Tiberias, Israel / pop: 39,800 / local time: 23:04:54.5 2018-07-08
Magnitude MD 2.9 = ~M5
Source: https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=689676
Comment by Juan F Martinez on June 17, 2018 at 6:05pm
Region SPAIN
Location 37.16 N ; 4.28 W Depth 8 km Distances 148 km NE of Gibraltar, Gibraltar / pop: 26,600 / local time: 09:47:33.4 2018-06-17 50 km N of Málaga, Spain / pop: 569,000 / local time: 09:47:33.4 2018-06-17 21 km W of Huétor-Tájar, Spain / pop: 9,100 / local time: 09:47:33.4 2018-06-17
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on April 9, 2018 at 7:25pm
https://qz.com/1244443/scientists-now-have-evidence-africa-is-physi...
Geologists now have evidence Africa is physically splitting into two continents
A large crack, stretching several kilometres, made a sudden appearance recently in south-western Kenya. The tear, which continues to grow, caused part of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse and was accompanied by seismic activity in the area.
The Earth is an ever-changing planet, even though in some respects change might be almost unnoticeable to us. Plate tectonics is a good example of this. But every now and again something dramatic happens and leads to renewed questions about the African continent splitting in two.
The Earth's lithosphere (formed by the crust and the upper part of the mantle) is broken up into a number of tectonic plates. These plates are not static, but move relative to each other at varying speeds, "gliding" over a viscous asthenosphere. Exactly what mechanism or mechanisms are behind their movement is still debated, but are likely to include convection currents within the asthenosphere and the forces generated at the boundaries between plates.
These forces do not simply move the plates around, they can also cause plates to rupture, forming a rift and potentially leading to the creation of new plate boundaries. The East African Rift system is an example of where this is currently happening.
The East African Rift Valley stretches over 3,000km from the Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates. Activity along the eastern branch of the rift valley, running along Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, became evident when the large crack suddenly appeared in south-western Kenya.
Why does rifting happen?
When the lithosphere is subject to a horizontal extensional force it will stretch, becoming thinner. Eventually, it will rupture, leading to the formation of a rift valley.
This process is accompanied by surface manifestations along the rift valley in the form of volcanism and seismic activity. Rifts are the initial stage of a continental break-up and, if successful, can lead to the formation of a new ocean basin. An example of a place on Earth where this has happened is the South Atlantic ocean, which resulted from the break up of South America and Africa around 138m years ago – ever noticed how their coastlines match like pieces of the same puzzle?.
Maps made by Snider-Pellegrini in 1858 showing his idea of how the American and African continents may once have fitted together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Snider-Pellegrini#/media/File...
Continental rifting requires the existence of extensional forces great enough to break the lithosphere. The East African Rift is described as an active type of rift, in which the source of these stresses lies in the circulation of the underlying mantle. Beneath this rift, the rise of a large mantle plume is doming the lithosphere upwards, causing it to weaken as a result of the increase in temperature, undergo stretching and breaking by faulting. continues.....................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO7s5zIhX6k
Comment by Juan F Martinez on April 2, 2018 at 3:08am
G | 1,160 |
Kickstarter is home to some of the coolest new stationery ideas. CNC pens are all the rage there and Josh Wilson is venturing into the fray with his Tech Force Pen and ruler concept. The Tech Force Pen consists of a triangular ruler with metric and imperial markings along with a pen that accepts Pilot Hi Tec C refills. When not in use, the pen stores in the ruler with a little help from pneumatic pressure.
The Tech Force Pen will be manufactured in the United States. The brushed aluminum finish is available for $50 and the black anodized finish will cost $75. Shipping within the<|fim_middle|>50. | US will be free, international shipping is $5. Each pledge will come with 3 Hi Tec C refills in different sizes: 0.4mm, 0.3mm, and .25mm. No word on what colour ink will be available. The pledges are scheduled to ship out in May 2014.
Josh has hit his funding goal, so this project is a go. There are 19 days left in the project and no word yet on the post-Kickstarter plans. The current price is very reasonable at $50, but I doubt the $50 price point will be around for long considering similar products that were also Kickstarted are now sold for $1 | 145 |
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We can coat stainless steel tubing and stainless steel fittings of course. But did you know we can coat valves, sample cylinders, regulators, fritted filters, mass flow controllers and other instrumentation?
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Our patented process eliminates interactions between flowpath surfaces and active compounds to enhance surface performance in a broad variety of applications. Since 1987, SilcoTek® has provided surface coating technology solutions to process, analytical, gas & oil, semiconductor and corrosion applications world wide. From prototype to production, SilcoTek offers patented and custom surface coating technologies that allow the user to improve the performance of their process and products. | . An inert, oxidation resistant coating able to withstand extreme high temperature and low temperature environments.
A non-stick | 22 |
Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Overcoming Indecision by Changing the Decision ...
Associated organisational units
DSI - Foundations
http://doi.apa.org/fulltext/2017-16730-001.html
https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000286
decision making, decision threshold, decreasing bounds, optimal decisions, reward rate, EXPANDED JUDGMENT SITUATION, PARADIGMS EMPHASIZING STATE, SEQUENTIAL-SAMPLING MODELS, DIFFUSION-MODEL, PERCEPTUAL DECISION, REACTION-TIME, SUPERIOR COLLICULUS, PROCESS LIMITATIONS, QUANTITATIVE THEORY, 2-CHOICE DECISIONS
Overcoming Indecision by Changing the Decision Boundary
Gaurav Malhotra
David S. Leslie
Casimir J. H. Ludwig
Rafal Bogacz
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
The dominant theoretical framework for decision making asserts that people make decisions by integrating noisy evidence to a threshold. It has recently been shown that in many ecologically realistic situations, decreasing the decision boundary maximizes the reward available from decisions. However, empirical support for decreasing boundaries in humans is scant. To investigate this problem, we used an ideal observer model to identify the conditions under which participants should change their decision boundaries with time to maximize reward rate. We conducted 6 expanded-judgment experiments that precisely matched the assumptions of this theoretical model. In this paradigm, participants could sample noisy, binary evidence presented sequentially. Blocks of trials were fixed in duration, and each trial was an independent reward opportunity. Participants therefore had to trade off speed (getting as many rewards as possible) against accuracy (sampling more evidence). Having access to the actual evidence samples experienced by participants enabled us to infer the slope of the decision boundary. We found that participants indeed modulated the slope of the decision boundary in the direction predicted by the ideal observer model, although we also observed systematic deviations from optimality. Participants using suboptimal boundaries do so in a robust manner, so that any error in their boundary setting is relatively inexpensive. The use of a normative model provides insight into what variable(s) human decision makers are trying to optimize. Furthermore, this normative model allowed us to choose diagnostic experiments and in doing so we present clear evidence for time-varying boundaries.
Bibliographic note
This article has been published under<|fim_middle|>. | the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher | 78 |
T<|fim_middle|> know they will adore, giving them the gift of memories for the rest of their lives. So, this February 14, I urge you to give the gift of love and embrace life as Confucius said: "Wherever you go, go with all your heart". And so on this romantic February, I wish you, Happy Traveltines.
Do you agree with Trafalgar's CEO? | rafalgar's CEO, Gavin Tollman, takes time out of his schedule to share his thoughts on the state of the industry. This month, he discusses the true love of travel.
For me, the adrenalin fires the adventure regardless if I am travelling for business or leisure. Looking up at the departures board in an airport is like looking through a telescope – my mind fills with a sense of wonder, my heart beats in awe. Some places prompt mental images, others are blank slates. All of them send my imagination into overdrive and get me ready to go and ready to connect.
It, therefore, seemed a perfect partnership when we talked about bringing travel to life with leading French perfumery, Fragonard Parfumeur. Working with the celebrated scents of Southern France, Trafalgar has created the world's first travel fragrance. 'La Belle Vie', in which we celebrate the love affair between our sense of smell and the travel memories that evokes.
Needless to say, my true favourite gift for those I love? Travel to a place I | 220 |
Karen Heywood
ERC Project 741120: COMPASS<|fim_middle|>PICCOLO Cruise |
COMPASS : Climate-relevant Ocean Measurements and Processes on the Antarctic continental Shelf and Slope.
Processes on the Antarctic continental shelf and slope are crucially important for determining the rate of future sea level rise, setting the properties and volume of dense bottom water exported globally, and regulating the carbon cycle. Yet our ability to model and predict these processes over future decades remains rudimentary. This deficiency in understanding originates in a lack of observations in this inaccessible region. The COMPASS project seeks to rectify that by exploiting new technology - autonomous marine vehicles called gliders - to observe, quantify and elucidate processes on the continental shelf and slope of Antarctica that are important for climate.
The COMPASS objective is to make a step-change in our quantitative understanding of:
(i) the ocean front that marks the boundary between the Antarctic continental shelf and the open ocean, and its associated current system;
(ii) the interaction between ocean, atmosphere and sea-ice on the Antarctic continental shelf;
(iii) the exchange of heat, salt and freshwater with the cavities beneath ice shelves.
These goals will be met by a series of targeted ocean glider campaigns around Antarctica, spanning different flow regimes, including areas where warm water is able to access the continental shelf and influence ice shelves, areas where the continental shelf is cold and fresh, and areas where the continental shelf hosts cold, salty, dense water that eventually spills into the abyss. A unique circumpolar assessment of ocean properties and dynamics, including instabilities and mixing, will be undertaken. COMPASS will develop new technology to deploy a profiling glider into inaccessible environments such as Antarctic polynyas (regions of open water surrounded by sea-ice). As well as scientific breakthroughs that will feed into future climate assessments, improving projections of future sea level rise and global temperatures, COMPASS will deliver enhanced design for future ocean observing systems.
COMPASS Events
Dec-Mar 2019
Bellingshausen Deployment (with CalTech)
Feb-Mar 2019
TARSAN Cruise
Dec-Feb 2019
| 414 |
TRSA Presents Global Textile Services Market Analysis
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — October 8, 2020 — TRSA recently hosted a webinar in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to present the findings of its Global Textile Services Market Analysis. The two-hour presentation aired on September 29 and was aired again separately with broadcasts for executives in both the Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets on September 30. Roughly 350 global linen, uniform and<|fim_middle|> uniform and facility services market via a prerecorded video.
Event partners included the national associations of Germany, DTV; Belgium, FBT; the Laundry Association of Australia, LAA; and the Textile Services Association of the UK. Additional event partners included Texcare International, which has been rescheduled to Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 2021, in Frankfurt, Germany; the Middle East Cleaning Technology Week, rescheduled for 28 – 30 September 2021, at the Dubai World Trade Centre; and the rescheduled World Textile Services Congress (WTSC), slated for Dec. 1-2, 2021, in conjunction with Texcare International in Frankfurt. Kleen-Tex, a global manufacturer and distributor of mats, sponsored the webinar.
Source: TRSA | facility services executives tuned into the series of broadcasts.
Claire Casey, global managing director, public policy practice, EIU, kicked off the webinar with an in-depth discussion of the report, which looked at market sectors, key indicators and major linen, uniform and facility services companies in five regions and 13 countries worldwide to guide investment, expansion and strategic decision-making in the global linen, uniform and facility services industry.
Casey noted that while industry demand will weaken through 2021, the industry will achieve modest growth worldwide through 2024, with demand for workwear improving as industries across the global economy recover from the COVID-19-driven downturn. Healthcare demand will drive a stable outlook for flat linen goods. Hotels, hurt by COVID-19-related declines in business and leisure travel, will face adverse impacts through 2022. Thereafter, hotels will expand quickly, according to the analysis.
Casey also detailed the economic forecasts and trends for several market sectors, including:
Construction;
Energy, oil and gas;
Healthcare;
Hotels; and
A total of 10 companies were profiled in the report, including Aramark, Cintas, CWS, Elan, Elis, Johnson Service Group, K-Bro, Rentokil Initial, Spotless and UniFirst. The analysis provided key insights into worldwide trends, as well as how companies are dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following Casey's presentation, Vaibhav Sahgal, consultant, public policy group, EIU, joined the webinar to lend further insight into the study. The presentation concluded with a question-and-answer session moderated by TRSA President & CEO Joseph Ricci.
After the Q&A wrapped up, several executives from leading global linen, uniform and facility services companies joined the webinar for a panel discussion on worldwide trends affecting the industry. Panelists included:
Jim Kearns, executive vice president, Alsco Linen & Uniform Rental Services, U.S.;
Juha Laurio, CEO, Lindstrom Oy, Finland;
Harley Oaten, executive general manager, Spotless, Australia; and
Henning Siemens, regional managing director, workwear, CWS International GmbH, Germany.
Ricci moderated the panel discussion. Pan Wei, executive chairman and secretary general, China Laundry Association (CLA), shared insights about the Chinese linen, | 484 |
View more >Intuition has been long seen as an element of effective human performance in demanding tasks (i.e. expertise). But its form, constitutive elements<|fim_middle|> and explores theories and empirical evidence about what constitutes intuitive expertise, and offers an account arising from a review of these explanations. Commencing with a consideration of examples of intuition from distinct fields of working life, it uses a cognitive perspective to open up the discussion for theorizing about intuition from an information processing perspective. It evaluates the widely acknowledged theory of two systems of information processing that proposes two parallel operating systems: the rational and intuitive. This theory provides foundations for understanding experts' abilities to act intuitively in high- performance-level activities. Research on expertise, finally, opens an educational perspective on intuition, with the progression from novice to expert being understood as an enduring and long-term learning process that inherently generates intuitive capabilities. The paper concludes by returning to and making connections with the literature on workplace and professional learning to provide insights into how individual and social learning processes support the development of intuitive expertise. | and development remain subject to diverse explanations. This paper discusses these elements | 13 |
Signage for 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' is displayed at the CBS Corp. Television City studio complex in Los Angeles.
The class action settlement between CBS Television Studios and workers seeking overtime wages was approved by a federal district court in New York Feb. 5.
The $9.97 million settlement, which included $3.32 million in attorneys' fees, is procedurally and substantively fair, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said.
The suit was filed by parking production assistants, who secure lots and streets on production sites during the filming of television shows. They claimed CBS didn't properly pay them overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York law.
The settlement is procedurally fair because it was reached through arm's-length negotiations after being evaluated by experienced counsel on both sides, the opinion by Judge Robert W. Lehrburger said.
The settlement is substantively fair because the issues in the case were complex and the class reacted positively to the settlement, the court said.<|fim_middle|> & Bockius LLP (New York) represented CBS.
The case is Hines v. CBS Television Studios, S.D.N.Y., No. 15-cv-07882, 2/5/19. | It reflects the risks in proceeding with the suit, and each class member will recover 100 percent of their overtime damages, the court said.
The fee award was approved because it reflected the significant amount of time class counsel spent investigating the claims, assessing viable parties, meeting with over 100 possible class members, and collecting and reviewing thousands of pages of data, the court said.
Counsel should also be awarded for being expedient, the court said. Also, no class member objected to the fee award, and courts regularly grant awards of one-third the settlement in wage and hour cases, the court said.
Valli Kane & Vagnini, LLP represented the workers. Morgan Lewis | 140 |
3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) Research Group
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About 3S
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Insight 1: The problem – Society is shut out
Insight 2: The system is the<|fim_middle|> range of environmental hazards such as flooding and volcanic.
Our research draws on and contributes to different theoretical and methodological approaches including actor network theory, governance and behaviour change, multi-hazard perspectives, citizen science and participation.
We conduct world-leading research on the social and political dimensions of environment and sustainability issues. 3S is based in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK.
behaviour change citizen science civil society Climate Change communities of practice community currencies community energy complementary currencies democracy domestication domestic energy use emerging technologies Energy energy demand energy economics energy practices energy publics energy system energy transitions expertise geography grassroots innovations Innovation local currencies low carbon housing mediators multi-level perspective niches Passivhaus politics public engagement public participation Public participation expertise publics Realising Transition Pathways reflexivity risk reduction Science and Technology Studies smart meters social innovation social practice theory socio-technical change strategic niche management sustainability teaching technology transition transition initiatives transitions water | issue
Insight 3: Society can do it
Insight 4: We need new forms of participation
Insight 5: Learn, reflect, experiment
Insight 6: Institutions must respond!
Insight 7: Open up, listen up, join up: The 3S way
3S Events
3S Debate
'Opening up' geoengineering appraisal: Deliberative Mapping of options for tackling climate change (PhD Project)
Deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth's climate system known as 'geoengineering' have been proposed in order to moderate anthropogenic climate change. This PhD research critically reviewed existing appraisals of geoengineering before developing and executing its own appraisal method in response to their limitations. The research developed an innovative multicriteria method called deliberative mapping to 'open…
July 12, 2017 in Climate Change, Completed Projects, Energy, Hazards and Risk, Innovation, Knowledges and expertise, Participation and engagement, Policy and governance.
Citizen Science for Disaster Risk Reduction
'Citizen science' can place citizens at the centre of a process that generates new knowledge for disaster risk reduction. This project, funded under the Research Councils UK Global Challenges Research Fund, aims to understand how citizen science is currently applied to disaster risk reduction (DRR) objectives in the face of natural hazards, and how it might be more…
July 12, 2017 in Climate Change, Current Projects, Hazards and Risk, Knowledges and expertise, Participation and engagement.
Jellyfish Bloom Risk and Management Implications in Northern Europe (PhD Project)
Large concentrations of jellyfish are increasingly being recorded worldwide. The main drivers of this are hypothesised to be as a result of increasing ocean temperatures and increases in prey availability. These factors are often influenced by anthropogenic activities that alter the characteristics of the oceans in favour of gelatinous zooplankton. The impacts of a bloomed…
July 12, 2017 in Climate Change, Completed Projects, Hazards and Risk, Knowledges and expertise, Policy and governance, Transitions to sustainability.
Coastal change in Norfolk: The contribution of visualizations to decision making (PhD Project)
Many communities along the Norfolk coast have historically, and more recently, seen changes to their landscapes. Significant changes are likely in the future, especially in areas where coastal erosion is evident. The way these changes are communicated and the level of community engagement in the decision making process on how to deal with current and…
July 12, 2017 in Climate Change, Completed Projects, Hazards and Risk, Knowledges and expertise, Participation and engagement, Transitions to sustainability.
Collaborative Floods Governance in England
ESRC (2014) Identifies the degree to which the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees (RFCCs) provide a collaborative approach to flood and coastal management at local level through the involvement of local actors.
September 23, 2015 in Climate Change, Completed Projects, Hazards and Risk, News.
Impacts of the December 2013 storm surge on the North Norfolk Coast
NERC (2014-15) Aims to determine the environmental impacts of the December 2013 North Norfolk storm surge event and understand the social responses.
November 27, 2014 in Climate Change, Completed Projects, Hazards and Risk, Policy and governance.
Monitoring Developments for Safe Repository Operation and Staged Closure (MoDeRn)
EU FP7 (2009-13) Aims to provide a reference framework for the development and possible implementation of monitoring activities and associated stakeholder engagement during relevant phases of the radioactive waste disposal process.
November 27, 2014 in Completed Projects, Hazards and Risk, Knowledges and expertise.
3S works collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders, affected communities, scientists and risk management authorities and across all levels of government, in a reflexive and interdisciplinary way that recognises multiple knowledges. We address challenges presented by human-made, technological and natural hazards and their associated risks across areas including climate change, radioactive waste and a | 868 |
Ronghui Gu discussed blockchain security on Columbia Data Security
More than a thousand attendees packed into Lerner Hall for Columbia's fourth annual Data Science Day, eager to hear from experts from across the university who are transforming disciplines and industries through thoughtfully applied data. Columbia Engineering faculty showcased innovative research ranging from blockchain security to extracting speech from brainwaves, while professors from the Law School, Journalism School, School of International and Public Affairs, Medical Center, and more discussed work in areas like protecting data security, understanding online radicalization, and improving patient outcomes.
In lightning talks throughout the April 3 daylong summit, affiliates of Columbia's Data Science Institute (DSI) shared their work applying machine learning to an impressive variety of challenges. In a panel moderated by Professor Garud Iyengar, chair of Columbia Engineering's Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) department, electrical engineering Professor Nima Mesgarani discussed his ground-breaking work in brain-computer interfaces and acoustic signal processing. Recently,<|fim_middle|> invested in by Binance Labs, along with other world's leading investors such as DHVC, FBG Capital, Bitmain, and Lightspeed.
To request the audit/verification of your smart contracts, please send an email to audit@certik.io or visit certik.io to submit the request.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/certik/
Email: info@certik.io
What is a DDoS Attack? How Can it Affect...
A DDoS attack, which stands for "distributed denial-of-service" is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attacks are mainly a problem seen in the traditional cybersecurity world, but how does this relate to crypto and blockchain?
What Is a Phishing Attack? Tips on How to...
Phishing attacks aren't native to crypto and is a type of scam that is as old as the internet, but with crypto there are some new implications. Learn more about how to protect yourself and your funds!
Skynet Security Primitive #6: Security Oracle
Skynet is a scalable security solution that leverages automated technologies to check deployed smart contracts for vulnerabilities. There are six metrics – called Security Primitives – that Skynet uses to arrive at an overall security score, on a scale of 0-100. The Security Oracle guards on-chain transactions and protects DeFi projects from malicious attacks through real-time security checks. | he managed to reconstruct intelligible speech from brain activity — a potential game-changer for those who've lost the ability to speak — and is also addressing the "cocktail party problem" in hearing aids, which currently amplify more audio than listeners wish to hear.
Among a panel moderated by Professor Shipra Agrawal of IEOR were computer science Professors Michael Collins and Tim Roughgarden. Collins walked the audience through his research in natural language processing and speech recognition, highlighting dramatic improvements thanks to new neural methods, while Roughgarden talked about his investigations of online automated auction reserve pricing, an area with vast implications for sponsored search results.
In another panel, fellow computer science faculty member Ronghui Gu discussed his work using mathematical methods to improve the security and reliability of blockchain technology. Ronghui Gu is also a co-founder of CertiK, a pioneering smart contract and blockchain cybersecurity firm which leverages Formal Verification technology to secure blockchain ecosystems.
Amid all the potential of cutting-edge data science, there are also potential pitfalls, argued the day's keynote speaker Brad Smith '84LAW, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft. Unchecked, "mass surveillance at an unprecedented scale" could quickly turn societies Orwellian, he said, unless nations institute rigorous new legal standards to protect privacy, promote transparency, and ensure accountability.
"We are the first generation of people in the history of this planet to give machines this kind of power," Smith said. "We're basing our lives on all of this technology, we're basing our societies on all of this technology, so more than ever the world needs to be able to trust this technology… Ultimately, we need a global conversation about these issues."
Later, attendees explored dozens of demos and posters from students and faculty, ranging from full-duplex wireless enabling simultaneous transmission and reception to software analyzing indices to predict outcomes of complex global events such as Brexit. A research team from computer science Professor Steven Feiner's Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab was voted best demo for their augmented/virtual reality system that allows multiple users to explore an immersive computer-generated 3D urban model of New York City.
"This new system is about multiple users collaborating in either AR or VR as they explore, organize, and share data associated with an urban environment in the context of that environment," said Carmine Elvezio, a researcher in Feiner's lab. "We place users in a virtual scale model where they see tweets, Yelp reviews, and NYC 311 complaints relative to the locations from which they are generated."
Introducing proceedings, Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute and computer science Professor Jeannette Wing noted that the collective's overarching mission is "to use data for good."
"Data Science Day is our moment to showcase our pioneering research and celebrate our engagements with industry," she said.
Source Link: https://engineering.columbia.edu/news/data-science-day-2019
CertiK is the premier blockchain and smart contract verification platform, founded by top Formal Verification experts from Yale and Columbia University and former senior software engineers from Google and Facebook. Different from the traditional testing approaches, CertiK attempts to mathematically prove blockchain ecosystems and smart contracts are hacker-resistant and bug-free. CertiK's key features include a layer-based decomposition approach, pluggable proof engine, machine-checkable proof objects, certified dApp libraries, and smart labeling.
Trusted by the security industry, CertiK has reached strategic partnerships with the world's top digital asset exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, and Huobi, as well as Public Chains such as NEO, ICON, and QuarkChain. CertiK is incubated and | 750 |
Science selected
Source of cosmic 'ghost' particle revealed
By Mary Halton Science reporter, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44786125
Image copyright IceCube/NSF
Image caption The discovery was made at the IceCube detector in Antarctica
Ghost-like particles known as neutrinos have been puzzling scientists for decades.
Part of the family of fundamental particles that make up all known matter, neutrinos hurtle unimpeded through the Universe, interacting with almost nothing.
The majority shoot right through the Earth as though it isn't even there, making them exceptionally difficult to detect and study.
Despite this, researchers have worked out that many are created by the Sun and even in our own atmosphere. But the source of one high energy group, known as cosmic neutrinos, has remained particularly elusive.
Now, in the first discovery of its kind, it turns out that a distant galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole may be shooting a beam of these cosmic neutrinos straight towards Earth.
Step One: Catch a neutrino
It all starts with IceCube, a highly sensitive detector buried about two kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice, near the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
"In order to get a measurable signal from the<|fim_middle|> time mode," says Prof Karle.
Eight other observatories trained their eyes and ears on the neutrino's point of origin.
The tricky part, explains Prof Karle, is that even though IceCube can work this out to within half a degree of sky, that is still about the size of the Moon as we see it from the Earth's surface. Such a region can encompass a lot of galaxies and other objects.
However this time, there was good news.
Image caption Artwork: a galaxy with a massive black hole at its centre
A galaxy with a "monster" black hole about 100 million times the size of our Sun, was sitting in exactly the right spot.
Step Three: Blazars off the shoulder of Orion
About four billion light years from Earth, just off the left shoulder of the constellation Orion, this galaxy has an intensely bright core caused by the energy of its central black hole.
As matter falls in to the black hole, vast jets of charged particles emerge at right angles, making them massive particle accelerators.
Image caption Artwork: The constellation of Orion
"They can extend to almost a million light years, just the jet. Which is of course bigger than the Large Hadron Collider at Cern," laughs Prof Karle.
It is perhaps unsurprising that the neutrino detected by IceCube arrived with 40 times more energy than particles accelerated at Cern, despite its long journey.
This particular galaxy type is known as a blazar, because one of the jets is trained directly towards Earth.
"So we are really in the line of fire. We are staring in to the eye of the monster so to speak," adds Prof Karle.
Although not originally high on the list of potential cosmic neutrino sources, this makes for strong evidence that blazars do generate the elusive particles.
"This is extremely exciting news," says Dr Cartwright, who was not involved in the study.
"We can hope that this observation will be followed by the identification of further neutrinos from flaring blazars."
The findings are published in Science
'Superheroes' of the particle world
Has US physics lab found a new particle?
After their initial detection, the IceCube team went back through previous records of neutrino interactions and found that several more had come from the direction of the same galaxy.
"The chance of this excess of neutrinos arising by chance is less than 0.03%," Dr Cartwright adds.
Confirming the discovery via the work of other observatories like the Eso's Very Large Telescope in Chile makes it the latest success for multi-messenger astronomy - detections combining electromagnetic information like visual and radio data with signals like gravitational waves and neutrinos.
Follow Mary on Twitter. | tiny fraction of neutrinos that do interact, neutrino physicists need to build extremely large detectors," explains Dr Susan Cartwright, a particle physicist at the University of Sheffield.
Measuring cosmic neutrinos against those created closer to home is, she told BBC News, "like trying to count fireflies in the middle of a firework display".
Image copyright Science Photo Library
Image caption IceCube is located near the Amundsen Scott base at the South Pole
But on 22 September 2017, one of these neutrinos showed up near IceCube's cubic kilometre array and decided to interact with the surrounding material, creating another particle called a muon.
Lacking the neutrino's stealth mode, this muon crashed through the ice in the same direction as its progenitor, sparking against other atoms along the way and creating a visible trail that IceCube could capture.
"[IceCube] measures this trail of light," explains Prof Albrecht Karle from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was involved in the discovery. "We can do that quite precisely, so that we can measure the direction of [the neutrino's] track."
Using this, IceCube was able to work out the approximate region of sky that the particle had been travelling from.
Step Two: Follow it home
Within 43 seconds, an alert was dispatched for telescopes to join in the hunt.
Image caption The Very Large Array listened in to the neutrino's source
Two years previously, the IceCube team had decided that rather than hoard their potential findings for publication, they would send out these "astronomy telegrams", inviting other researchers to participate in the chase as soon as an event was detected.
"Traditionally in astronomy we looked at images of the sky, like it was static, but in reality it's a movie. All the time there are flashes and things moving and happening. So instead of publishing a paper and having astronomers look three years later at something we report, we went into real | 408 |
The social network grew its active user base by 25% year over year, nearly doubling top-line sales.
China-based social network operator Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) reported third-quarter results early Tuesday morning. Management celebrated a "virtuous cycle of growth" as the company delivered strong growth in many important business metrics.
Here's a closer look at Weibo's latest report.
The theme of user engagement also popped up many times in management's conference call with analysts. The company is revamping its content feeds, using machine learning and data mining tools to improve the user experience. The effort appears to be paying dividends, as the average Weibo user engaged with 10% more content in this reporting period than in the second quarter.
Weibo is exploring a larger portfolio of video-based content and advertising, hoping to drive those user engagement numbers even higher. The company is also busy working up partnerships with Chinese smartphone makers, mobile networks, and ad partners in order to put the Weibo platform in<|fim_middle|> advertising arena, too, as Weibo's core service includes a mobile payment feature powered by Alibaba. | the hands of more users. For example, e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) nearly tripled its Weibo ad spending year over year to account for 8% of Weibo's total third-quarter sales. The partnership extends outside the pure | 50 |
RivALZ<|fim_middle|>43215 | Columbus is an annual charity flag football game where two teams of women face off to inspire action, awareness and fundraising in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. All funds raised go directly to the research, support and efforts of the Alzheimer's Association, Central Ohio chapter. The Young Professional group affiliated with the Central Ohio Alzheimer's Association, the Junior Committee, plans RivALZ as their signature fundraising initiative each year.
The funds raised through RivALZ benefit the care, support and research efforts of the Central Ohio Alzheimer's Association. The Alzheimer's Association strives to:
Help families across the country by continuing to provide and enhance programs focusing on education and support.
Advance critical research studies into methods of treatment, prevention and ultimately, a cure.
Speak up for the needs and rights of those facing Alzheimer's through our public policy initiatives.
In our tenth year, RivALZ Columbus continues to engage the community, raising over $217,083 to date. Our dedicated players, coaches, and volunteers are working hard to continue this momentum, making our 2018 game bigger and better than ever. Want to cheer on the crowd? Donate to one of our players and you will receive admission to the game!
REGISTER: act.alz.org/rivalzcolumbus
EMAIL: RivALZColumbus@gmail.com
ADDRESS: 1379 Dublin Rd., Columbus, Ohio | 280 |
Home Features Thought Leadership Right to Know Day: information commissioner addresses federal FOI officers
Right to Know Day: information commissioner addresses federal FOI officers
By Angelene Falk
Australian information and privacy commissioner Angelene Falk.
The Australian Information Commissioner gave a keynote address to federal FOI officers at a meeting of the Information Contact Officers Network (ICON) this week.
For the OAIC, 2018 has been a year of achievement, continuity and change. Notably, our long-serving Privacy Commissioner, and more recently Australian Information Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim retired in March.
After a period acting in the roles, in mid-August I was appointed by the Governor-General as Australian Information Commissioner and as Privacy Commissioner, and I'm very pleased to be with you here today in that capacity.
It's a great honour to have the opportunity to serve the Australian people in these roles, particularly at a time when there is heightened awareness, both in Australia and globally, of the importance of transparency and accountability in information access and information handling.
"FOI is just one avenue for individuals to exercise their right to access government information. The starting point should really be the proactive release and publication of information and documents."
Access to information through the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) supports transparent and accountable government. And the Privacy Act also supports transparency and accountability in the handling of personal information by government and business.
This morning I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on our role and purpose, the role of the OAIC as a regulator, and for you as FOI practitioners. To that end, I will provide information on the broader Open Government landscape and, in relation to our State and Territory counterparts, information on what we can see from our analysis of Commonwealth agency statistics; and what we are seeing through the applications for Information Commissioner reviews.
My approach over the next three years will be to use our evidence base to take a proactive approach to enhance FOI practice across the Australian Public Service and to support the community's understanding and ability to exercise information access rights.
We will also have a strong focus on supporting agencies to fully operationalise the push model of proactive publication, which is a hallmark of the Commonwealth FOI Act.
The information access landscape
So let's start with a recap of the objects of our FOI Act. As we look across our information landscape, it's clear that not only is there heightened awareness of access to information issues, community expectations are also evolving.
Everyone here in this room has a critical role to play in meeting these expectations and upholding the objects of our freedom of information laws. By managing government-held information as a national resource, for public purposes, you are actively promoting public participation in our democracy.
The proactive push model embedded in the FOI Act through the Information Publication Scheme and Disclosure Log provisions provides two critical tools to help achieve this goal. Through providing access to documents on request, you are also enabling the scrutiny, review and discussion of government policies and activities that supports better informed decision making.
Our purpose at the OAIC is to promote and uphold these information access rights, alongside privacy rights, and our role in promoting open access to government information is as important as ever. We all have a role to play in promoting transparency and accountability, and in doing so, in building the community's trust in government.
Open Government National Action Plan
At the national level, the Australian Government's commitment to open government is a key element in this transparent and accountable approach.
The Australian Government has joined the open government partnership and last week released the second Open Government National Action Plan. Developed in collaboration with the community, the Plan is aimed at enhancing the access to information, civic participation, and public accountability.
It, together with the first National Action Plan, is intended to build greater openness and transparency into the way government deals with the community, so it can deliver better outcomes. The OAIC is a member of the Open Government Partnership Forum that developed the plan, which focuses on:
strengthening the national anti-corruption framework
enhancing the transparency of political donations and funding
improving the sharing, use and reuse of public-sector data
improving public service practices using place-based approaches
enhancing state and territory participation in the Open Government Partnership
enhancing public engagement skills in the public service
engaging Australians in the Independent Review of the APS and
expanding open contracting and due diligence in procurement.
Three initiatives of particular relevance to practitioners target improvements in the sharing, use and re-use of public sector data; assessing community awareness and experience of their access to information rights; and enhancing public engagement skills in the public service.
The first of these involves the implementation of data governance reforms announced earlier this year – including the appointment of an interim National Data Commissioner, and the proposed Commonwealth Data Sharing and Release Act to streamline access to and use of data.
As you would expect, while these changes are intended to promote better sharing of public sector data, the government has also made it clear they need to build public trust in the use of this data by improving data privacy and security through strong and consistent safeguards.
Consultation on the design of the proposal is continuing, led by the Interim National Data Commissioner. I am engaging with this process to help ensure greater access to data while protecting privacy.
The second commitment I will highlight is to enhance engagement skills through the use of open dialogue and deliberative processes to allow richer communication and engagement on policy issues. Allowing greater access to information as part of this dialogue is highlighted as critical to ensuring meaningful input, and improving transparency and civic participation.
The third commitment of particular relevance is to engage the states and territories in information access issues to strengthen a culture of open, transparent and accountable government at all levels, including through the Open Government Partnership. This was a key topic at the meeting of Australian and New Zealand Information Access Commissioners that I hosted in Sydney last week.
This initiative has a focus on collaboration. Information Access Commissioners are also conducting a survey to increase our understanding of the community's awareness of their information access rights, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. A better understanding of these issues will help inform how we can promote and support these important rights.
Managing access to information
The broad interest in transparency, accountability and access to information is reflected in the other work of the OAIC, and we continue to experience increases in the volume of work in both the FOI and privacy aspects of our role.
For those of you who may be new to our ICON network, I would like to briefly recap some of our key FOI functions. These include:
reviewing FOI decisions made by agencies and ministers – referred to as Information Commissioner or IC reviews;
investigating complaints about agency actions under the FOI Act;
issuing Guidelines under the FOI Act, which ministers and agencies must have regard to; and
considering extension of time applications.
We also:
consider requests to make a vexatious applicant declaration
make disclosure log determinations — that is, that the requirement to publish information in a disclosure log does not apply to specified information
assist agencies to publish information under the Information Publication Scheme and review, investigate and monitor compliance with the scheme; and
monitor, investigate and report on agencies' compliance with the FOI Act.
More broadly, our role is to promote awareness and understanding of the FOI Act, including providing information and advice. To that end our enquiries service provides an important awareness and information avenue, in addition to our web resources.
Each year we receive about 2,000 phone calls and written inquiries about FOI matters. About half relate to general processes such as how to make an FOI request or complaint. We will develop further guidance for applicants this year.
We also collect information and statistics from agencies and ministers about FOI matters, and I would like to share some insights into what we're seeing from these figures.
Update on FOI statistics
At our meeting of Australian Information Access Commissioners last week, we discussed our national dashboard on the public's use of FOI laws in 2016-17.
It's very interesting to consider our Commonwealth trends in light of the other jurisdictions. I should caution that the models in place across the country differ, for example the Commonwealth, NSW and QLD have proactive or "<|fim_middle|> more than four in five requests are for personal information.
The personal privacy exemption in section 47F is generally the most claimed exemption.
IC reviews
As I mentioned, there is an increasing demand for the expertise of the OAIC to inform the work of business and government.
This is reflected in the sustained growth in privacy complaints and Information Commissioner reviews over the past few years.
For the OAIC, review of decisions to refuse access to government documents is designed around four key principles.
It is intended to be as informal as possible.
It is intended to be non-adversarial.
It is intended to be timely; and
It is a merit review process where I make the correct or preferable decision at the time I make my decision.
The Information Commissioner also has the power to review decisions relating to charges and refusal to amend or annotate personal information records. I can also review access grant decisions: decisions to grant access to a document where there is a requirement to consult with a third party under the Act.
An affected third party can apply for an IC review if they contend that information an agency or minister decided to release is exempt under a relevant provision such as personal privacy. My Office has published a range of documents that outline our processes and provide guidance on how I exercise these functions.
This includes our FOI Guidelines, Regulatory Action Policy and the Procedure Direction. In an IC review, the agency or minister has the onus of establishing that the decision is justified or that I should give a decision adverse to an applicant. Agencies and ministers must also use their best endeavours to assist me to make the correct or preferable decision.
During the IC review process, the OAIC assists parties to reach agreement to resolve the review. We also invite an agency or minister to consider whether they may revoke or vary an access refusal decision to favour the applicant. This facilitates the prompt release of further material to the applicant. Many of the IC review applications are resolved through this process, or the issues in contention narrowed.
Of course, some matters will not be resolved and in general, around 20% of matters will progress to formal decisions. If this occurs, I must make a decision after a merit review of the matter under s55K of the Act. When conducting a merit review, I can access all relevant material, including material claimed to be exempt. I can also consider additional material and submissions not considered by the original decision maker.
If I find that the original decision was not correct in law or not the preferable decision, I can vary the original decision or set it aside and substitute a new decision. For example, I may decide that a document is not an exempt document under the FOI Act or that an access charge was not correctly applied.
While the IC review process is intended to be as informal as possible, it is of course preferable to make the best decision at first instance. The starting point should be to release as much information as you can at the first instance and, if exemptions need to be relied on, communicate these in a way that an applicant who has less knowledge of the nuances of the FOI Act will understand.
I encourage you to familiarise yourself with recent IC decisions, all of which are available on AustLII.
Themes in IC reviews
In terms of some of the key themes across the FOI landscape, we are seeing a high volume of IC review applications relating to decisions made under Part III of the FOI Act.
This includes the use of practical refusal provisions: because the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations, or because the request does not provide sufficient information, and refusals where an agency has taken reasonable steps to locate documents within the scope of the request and documents cannot be found or do not exist.
The significant increase in practical refusals is reflected in an increase in the number of complaints and IC review applications about agencies' reliance on these provisions. This includes concerns raised by applicants about whether agencies are taking reasonable steps to assist them to revise the scope of the request during the consultation process, as required under the FOI Act.
Another common factor is whether an agency has taken all reasonable steps to locate documents before refusing a request. In many of our reviews, agencies are providing more detailed explanations around these searches, and I would encourage you to include these explanations to applicants as part of your original decisions.
The OAIC provides guidance on what constitutes reasonable steps through its FOI Guidelines and IC review decisions, as well as during the case management process. We hope that through this guidance, agency decision-making on these issues will become more robust and the number of IC review applications relating to these provisions will decrease.
I want to talk a little now about administrative access, which was a theme from our last ICON session.
Dealing with requests for information and documents on an administrative basis can offer benefits to both agencies and members of the public. It's often a quicker, more flexible and inexpensive alternative to FOI. It also promotes the objects of the FOI Act, including:
increasing public participation in Government processes, with a view to promoting better-informed decision-making;
increasing scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of the Government's activities;
increasing recognition that information held by the Government is to be managed for public purposes, and is a national resource; and
facilitating and promoting public access to information, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost.
Earlier this year we sought feedback on our administrative access resource, and we have now revised our guidance to:
recommend agencies and ministers seek an FOI applicant's consent before dealing with their request through the administrative access scheme;
suggest that agencies and ministers explain to applicants the implications of using administrative access, in particular, that it is not subject to review rights; and
clarify the interaction between administrative access and the Privacy Act 1988, where a request is made for an individual's own personal information.
The revised guidance also includes a checklist for agencies. Our focus is to promote good decision making, and reviewing and updating our resources is an important part of this.
We also want to hear your suggestions, so I encourage you to provide feedback to us on these issues and at future ICON sessions, through the feedback forms to be shared after this event. You can also talk to our FOI team here today.
The proactive release and publication of information also underpins the Information Publication Scheme. This was introduced in 2011 with the aim of promoting greater transparency and accessibility across Australian Government agencies.
At our last ICON session in March, we advised that we would be conducting an agency-wide review of its operation. I'm pleased to advise that 82% of agencies completed the voluntary survey. Thank you to those in the room who submitted responses to the online survey.
The OAIC is giving close consideration to the responses, which indicate a continued commitment to proactive publication across agencies, and also some areas for further focus. We will also consider the comments provided as part of the survey when reviewing our guidance and other resources to assist your agency to comply with the scheme.
Right to Know Day
These are all topical issues – particularly in the lead up to International Right to Know Day – a day to encourage the community to explore their information access rights.
The idea of Right to Know Day was proposed during a meeting of information access advocates in Bulgaria in September 2002. Since then it has grown into a global event that recognises citizens' right to access government-held information, and reinforces the importance of transparency in building trust in government.
Information Access Commissioners are hosting a number of events around Australia this week, including two yesterday: the Solomon lecture from Queensland, delivered this year by Professor Ken Smith; and a joint panel hosted by Monash University and the Victorian Information Commissioner. Recordings of both these events should be available online in coming days.
The OAIC has also created a campaign website and a new video series to mark Right to Know Day – including one focusing on your role as FOI practitioners.
And on Right to Know Day itself we are hosting a community event at Wynyard in Sydney.
These efforts highlight the role Information Commissioners play in promoting and upholding the fundamental right of the community to access government information. There's more information on our website.
We've also updated our tips for FOI decision makers to provide clear and informative advice for better practice under the FOI Act.
As the Freedom of Information Act states, "information held by the Government… is a national resource".
As FOI practitioners, you have a vital role as managers of this information. As the regulator tasked with various functions under the FOI Act, we understand and appreciate the important work that you do and the challenges you may face.
At the OAIC, our focus and commitment is to continue to develop the FOI capabilities of Australian Government agencies and to promote best practice.
As part of your commitment to information access, I would also encourage you to champion the proactive publication and release of information within your agencies.
In this way, we can continue to grow a culture of openness as part of a transparent and accountable government.
Angelene Falk is the Australian Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner. A separate role, Freedom of Information Commissioner, also exists in the enabling legislation for her office but has been left vacant by the government since December 2014.
People: Angelene Falk
Departments: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Tags: FOI Privacy right to know transparency
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You'll also receive special offers from our partners. You can opt out any time. | push" model FOI laws.
In 2016-17 there were almost 40,000 applications or decisions at the Commonwealth level — a similar level to Victoria, and more than double the number in WA and NSW.
Of those, there were 90% where full or partial access was granted, compared to 97% and 96% in WA and Victoria, respectively. Only 10% were refused in full at the Commonwealth level — compared to about 20% in Queensland and South Australia.
Insights into the Commonwealth statistics are made possible through your reports to us, and we thank you for them. Recently, we have seen some reduction in requests for personal information and non-personal requests.
A key factor has been the introduction of an administrative access scheme for personal information by a major government agency. This is also contributing to a sizeable improvement in the proportion of FOI requests processed within the statutory timeframe.
The majority of FOI requests at the Commonwealth level are for documents containing personal information. Generally, | 215 |
What is Pour Over Coffee?
At a glance, it might sound like all coffee—not made in a press, anyway—is pour-over coffee. And, in a literal sense, it is—but nothing quite reproduces the quality of a lovingly made hand pour.
Here, we adopt a bird's-eye view of what to know about the pour-over coffee making method.
What are the Benefits of Pour Over Coffee?
The allure of a pour-over method is its capacity to extract flavors from a coffee that are harder to control in a batch drip or in a French press. (French press, by comparison, is an immersion brew method.) Pour-over coffee is a careful, exacting, and sometimes frustrating process that rewards patience and experimentation.
To understand why this brew comes out so much differently is to understand a bit about coffee itself. There are generally an exhausting number of controlling elements to what makes a delightful cup of Joe, but it could be argued there are four major variables to pay attention to with manual coffee brewing: water temperature, grind size, water pressure, and coffee-to-water ratio.
Pour-over brewing allows more control over at least two of these variables.
Water temperature is largely out of your hands when dealing with a drip pot; in most cases, the machine will determine what the pre-set temperature for the water is and you'll have to trust the water temperature will stay consistent throughout the brewing. Pour-over coffee, meanwhile, typically requires a kettle with settings that give you control over the temperature, and given the short period of time actually spent pouring the water over the coffee, it hardly has a chance to drop in temperature from what you first set it for.
Beyond that, and perhaps most significant, is the pouring style. With a gooseneck dripper, you can carefully control the pressure and stream of the water as it<|fim_middle|> half, keeping the tip of the gooseneck close to the grinds as you make circular motions. If you're feeling confident, work grinds into the water using a spoon during the remaining brew time to ensure all grounds are in contact with the water, all the while adding some turbulence to activate and enhance the coffee extraction.
Dump the filter and enjoy. The coffee will continue brewing for about another minute after finishing with the pour, but afterward it's time to toss the grinds, pour the coffee and bask in the subtle tasting notes of your coffee of choice.
Pour-Over Coffee Makers
There's no right or wrong choice for pour-over coffee brewers, but there are some go-to options.
Chemex. A favorite among craft coffee shops, this hourglass-shaped, glass brewer doubles as its own stylish carafe. It's an attractive pour-over option with thick and reliable paper filters that has the added benefit of being widely available.
Hario. This Japanese-designed over-the-mug manual brewer is known to be one of the best options for filtering the coffee, thanks to a swirling design that impressively directs water flow. It's also very portable.
Clever. This is a plastic device that rests over a mug or glass and has a stopping mechanism that helps control the flow of coffee. It's also, frankly, just easy to clean.
Now that you know a bit more about the art of pour-over coffee, you may want to ask for one yourself, or try to master the process yourself. Trust us, it's worth it! | falls over the grounds, and you have an opportunity to evenly cover the grounds. With a machine, there is no guarantee of this—and many machines fail to consistently cover grounds.
This is taking coffee into your own hands.
Pour-Over Coffee Instructions
How to make pour-over coffee: To begin, select a pour-over coffee maker of choice. This could be a Chemex, or something like a Hario dripper that simply goes on top of a cup. Either way, the methods for brewing will be similar.
Gather materials. You'll want a well-cleaned coffee maker to ensure no leftover oils from the last coffee brew are finding their way into your current one. You'll also need coffee that's been ground to your size of choice—the grind size will depend on what coffee you choose, but this is a good time to toy with finer grinds—along with a filter, timer, and kettle. Rinse the filter to eliminate any paper or chemical taste that may work its way into coffee during brewing. (Note: If looking for a precisely timed and measured pour-over brew, you can use a scale to gauge your coffee pour rate as you brew—but that goes beyond Pour Over 101.)
Heat water. You'll want your water to be in the ballpark of 202-205 degrees Fahrenheit, to extract the delicate flavors in the grinds. To go even further in ensuring water temperature consistency, run hot water through the coffee maker and mug before brewing. Your pour-over coffee ratio here should be about 24 grams to 14 ounces of water, though everyone tends to have their own preferred "recipe" that decides how much coffee for pour-over.
Bloom. With this, we have what is probably the most unique step in the pour-over process. Let the water rest from boiling for just a few seconds before beginning to pour and then cover the grounds evenly. Use the gooseneck kettle to make circular pouring motions that begin at the center and end at the outside rim of the maker; then, set a timer and watch for it to hit the 30-second mark. By this point, the coffee should look engorged into a mound and bubbling. This is called blooming and perfectly sets up the grounds for the rest of the process.
Finish brewing. Continue pouring the rest of the water over the coffee for approximately another minute and a | 486 |
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Italy are concerned about their Friday's match against Costa Rica, who came from behind to beat Uruguay 3-1.
Italy can't afford to celebrate too much after opening the World Cup with an impressive win over England.
The Azzurri have to recover physically after a draining match in the jungle venue of Manaus and prepare to face a surprising Costa Rica side.
They also have to guard against their tendency to play poorly against lesser-known teams<|fim_middle|>Candreva set up Balotelli's goal and Darmian showed poise despite making his international debut just two weeks ago in a warm-up match with Ireland.
What Prandelli wants now is to avoid a letdown against Costa Rica. | and to struggle in the second matches of major tournaments.
"The second match is decisive," coach Cesare Prandelli said after the 2-1 win over England on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Azzurri flew back down to their training base in Mangaratiba. But they will have to travel north again for Friday's match in Recife against Costa Rica, which came from behind to stun Uruguay 3-1 and start a tough Group D with a major upset.
Costa Rica and Italy each have three points to top the group and Italy will enter its next match as a clear favorite.
However, the Azzurri were also full of confidence after drawing 1-1 with title-holder Spain to open Euro 2012. They went on to struggle in their second match, also drawing 1-1 with Croatia, and then needed a 2-0 win over Ireland to be sure of advancing.
Even in 2006, when Italy won its fourth World Cup, the Azzurri opened with a 2-0 win over Ghana only to draw 1-1 with the United States in their next match and again struggle to get through.
And in 2010, things went from bad to worse from the first match to the second. After a 1-1 draw with Paraguay, the Azzurri were held to an embarrassing 1-1 draw by New Zealand before then being eliminated by a 3-2 defeat to Slovakia.
Making matters more complicated this time around is the climate. According to FIFA, it was 30 degrees C (86 degrees F) with humidity at 61 percent for the England match and Prandelli criticized organizers for not allowing time outs.
Midfielder Daniele De Rossi echoed Prandelli when he said that it was "absurd to play a World Cup opener in these conditions.
"Now we'll see if we need to make some lineup changes to help recuperate," De Rossi added.
Prandelli might use Lorenzo Insigne to add some spark on the left wing, where Italy struggled on Saturday. Mattia De Sciglio could return at left back after sitting out the England game with a muscle strain, and center back Gabriel Paletta could return to the bench after struggling to stop England's physical forwards.
Most importantly, Prandelli has to examine the condition of captain Gianluigi Buffon, who also sat out with an injured ankle. Salvatore Sirigu performed admirably in goal in Buffon's absence but Buffon can take Italy to another level.
Prandelli was pleased with the play of fullback Matteo Darmian and attacking midfielder Antonio Candreva on the right wing.
| 556 |
A mum-of-one hanged herself in a 'cry for help' but tragically could not be saved, an inquest heard.
Rojene Coenen, 28, was found by her partner Lee Smirthwaite at their home in Stainland Road, Greetland in the early hours of Sunday July 22.
He dialled 999 and began CPR as instructed. He told Bradford Coroner's Court: "I have never felt so tired in my life but there was no way I was going to stop."
Police arrived and paramedics took over CPR. Lee added: "Every minute that went by<|fim_middle|> best to save her there was nothing they could do and her family were told she was not going to survive.
The inquest heard that Ms Coenen, a former Greenhead College Student, had attended a family wedding reception woth her partner at Bowers Mill in Barkisland, Ripponden, on the Saturday night.
The couple had had an argument shortly after 2am, after which he left the home to cool off in his van outside.
He broke into the house and found her after receiving a text message from Ms Coenen.
Lee, who had been in a relationship with Rojene for 11 months, said: "I can't help but blame myself.
"People have said I'm not to blame. I never thought she would do something like this."
The court heard toxicology reports found Rojene, had alcohol equivalent to two pints of beer in her blood as well as evidence of cocaine use and a 'stimulant drug'.
Rojene's mother, Sylvia Cahill, who also attended the hearing, said in a statement: "She was a really good mother to her daughter".
However, she said she suffered from mild depression and had suffered a panic attack while on a girl's holiday in Benidorm.
She said that two years ago Rojene told her that "she had gone to a bridge but had been talked down".
Mrs Brocklehurst said Rojene had a certain "artistic flair" and had been a "loving and caring mother".
She concluded that despite what happened she did not think it was suicide but rather a "cry for help".
She said she thought Rojene had had "second thoughts" but "tragically it took him, (Lee), a long time to get into the house.
"Sadly, it was not possible to save her. She didn't intend to take her life in the fullest sense of the legal term, (suicide). I believe it was a cry for help. Tragically that help was delayed."
Addressing Rojene's mother directly and her step-father Mark Cahill, Mrs Brocklehurst said: "I have no words to express how sad I am that you are here today." | I kept thinking that she was going to wake up."
Although medics at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary tried their | 25 |
This picture of a heart-shaped feature in Arabia Terra on Mars was taken on May 23, 2010, by the Context Camera (CTX) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A small impact crater near the tip of the heart is responsible for the formation of the bright, heart-shaped feature. When the impact occurred, darker material on the surface was blown away, and brighter material beneath it was revealed. Some of this brighter material appears to have flowed further downslope to form the heart shape, as the small impact occurred on the ejecta blanket of a much larger impact crater.
The heart-shaped feature is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) long<|fim_middle|>, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and operates it in partnership with JPL. | and is centered at 21.9 degrees north latitude, 12.7 degrees west longitude.
These pictures are subframes of the full CTX image B21_017910_2002_XI_20N012W, taken just at the start of northern summer on Mars. North is to the right, and illumination is from the upper right. The CTX image has been colorized using a look-up table based on Mars Orbiter Camera red and blue wide angle images that maps albedo to color.
The Context Camera was provided by and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory | 143 |
Research worldwide has shown that residential energy consumption is a major contributor of carbon emissions. However, China is working to break the mold. Earlier this year, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the Low Carbon Community Pilot Development Guidelines, which contains guidelines that push cities to<|fim_middle|> forestry, and waste treatment. The resulting data will serve as a foundation for the Chengdu municipal government to consistently measure and report GHG emissions, informing climate action plans and catalyzing low-emission urban development. In June, WRI China collaborated with partners to provide training workshops to over a hundred Chengdu officials, equipping them with advanced analytical tools and methodologies for policy making.
More information on the Sustainable and Livable Cities project can be found here. | curb their carbon emissions in residential areas.
Chengdu has already earned outstanding achievements for low-carbon community development, with two local eco-communities selected as national case studies in 2014. Chengdu was also recently chosen as a pilot city of WRI China's Sustainable and Livable Cities Project. Like many other cities, Chengdu is suffering from rising GHG emissions, greater environmental pollution, and more acute resource shortages. WRI China's Case Study on Chengdu Low Carbon Development Blueprint shows how the rapidly growing city has experienced increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Technical capacity is needed to improve building efficiency, ensure community planning, and develop infrastructure in a way that is appropriate for Chengdu's unique context. Coinciding with China's third national Low Carbon Day on June 15th, WRI China organized capacity building workshops to train local planners and researchers on low-carbon community development. With our partners, including the Caterpillar Foundation, our team is developing training programs, a new GHG inventory tool, and proposals for greener regulations to ensure Chengdu reduces emissions at both the city and neighborhood levels, and becomes a more livable place for residents.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories enable cities to understand how various urban sectors produce differing levels of emissions so that climate initiatives are targeted. To streamline the process of developing local inventories, WRI, C40 Cities, and ICLEI developed The Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool for Chinese Cities, a product of Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GPC). The tool establishes a robust and clear framework that builds on existing methodologies for calculating and reporting city-wide GHG emissions.
With the new GPC tool and other national and international methodologies, WRI China is working with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Chengdu's 2010 inventory to analyze emissions from energy consumption, industry, agriculture, land use, | 385 |
Produced<|fim_middle|>ac.
L'Épicerie J.A. Moisan, the oldest (and arguably most beautiful) grocery store in North America.
The interior of L'Épicerie J.A. Moisan.
The Château Frontenac. | by Vanity Fair Studios with Destination Canada
Scenes from Literary Québec City
From Ville de Québec.
Petit-Champlain Street at during the Holiday season.
By Guy Lessard/Québec City Tourism.
Rue Saint-Louis in Québec City's Old Town.
By Emmanuel Coveney.
A horse-drawn carriage navigates a pretty side street under the gaze of Château Frontenac.
Aux Anciens Canadiens offers traditional Québécois fare.
By Jeff Frenette/Québec City Tourism.
A horse-drawn carriage pauses in front of the parliament building.
Château Frontenac overlooks the Terrasse Dufferin and St. Lawrence River.
By Francis Gagnon/Québec City Tourism.
Sous-le-Fort Street of Quartier Petit-Champlain (district) in Old Québec's Lower Town.
An aerial view of the heart of Old Town taken from the roof of Château Fronten | 191 |
Home / posts / Publications /<|fim_middle|> number of stakeholder workshops and are currently finalising and analysing the map created. | Case Studies / Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
Pete Barbrook-Johnson
Participatory Systems Mapping Case Study with the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV)
The Industrial Strategy established Grand Challenges to "put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future, ensuring that the UK takes advantage of major global changes, improving people's lives and the country's productivity". These are developments in technology that are set to transform industries and societies around the world, and in which the UK has the opportunity to play a leading global role. The Future of Mobility is one of these Grand Challenges, with the aim of the UK becoming a world leader in the way people, goods and services move.
We are beginning to see new mobility models emerge, such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS). The Department for Transport (DfT) have defined MaaS as the 'integration of various modes of transport along with information and payment functions into a single mobility service'; they are keen to see these accelerate, as outlined in their published priorities, but to do so in line with the principles they have also set out.
CECAN is running a Participatory Systems Mapping case study with DfT and the joint DfT-BEIS Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) to assist with identifying the interactions between the structural requirements to develop MaaS business models, wider impacts, and the interventions that could effect these. This will help CCAV to identify and prioritise policy interventions to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks of these business models in relation to the nine Future of Mobility principles. CCAV will also use this work to develop a common understanding of MaaS with stakeholders, support appraisal and evaluation efforts, and prioritise their research agenda.
At the time of writing (May 2020) the case study is ongoing, we have run a | 386 |
QRM company projects follow a general process framework to ensure clear focus on the project goals and timely completion. Read below how this partnership works and what companies can expect.
A typical project involves one or more students working under the supervision of one faculty expert from the Center. The students are typically graduate students in engineering. Occasionally, advanced engineering undergraduates or technically oriented graduate students in business may also be involved.
The students usually focus<|fim_middle|> project. | on a project for one-quarter of their time over one semester (or summer*). The project may involve regular (e.g. once a week) data-gathering visits to the company sponsoring the project. The remainder of the time is spent by the students at the University, conducting analysis, research, modeling and simulation, meeting with faculty experts, and other work related to the | 75 |
Charlie Glaes Retires as Vicksburg Superintendent
May 12, 2018 Community, News, Schools, Vicksburgjustingibson
Charlie Glaes will be making his last graduation speech in front of the class of 2018 in June.
Vicksburg Superintendent of Schools Charlie Glaes in his Administration Building office.
By Sue Moore
After 36 years of teaching and administering in the Vicksburg School System – and parenting his own children there – Charlie Glaes' legacy might read as follows: "That I was able to take a great institution and work with others to make it better."
Announcing his retirement as superintendent at the April board meeting, he told an audience of parents, students, teachers and administrators that "After a long period of soul-searching, I will retire at the end of this school year, on June 30. I look forward to the next phase of my life and the opportunities it holds."
"I also know that I am leaving the District I love strong and poised to move forward boldly," he continued. "A strong community such as Vicksburg creates the conditions for strong schools that thrive. Our school system has long been recognized as stable and innovative, high achieving and highly supportive; a district attractive to parents and staff."
Glaes began his career in Vicksburg in 1982 as the suspension room proctor, a position the school board had created so students could continue learning while suspended. He had begun as a teacher aide in Three Rivers and then taught 2nd grade there for four years after graduating from Western Michigan University. Glaes was subbing and working full time on his Master's degree in administration when Supt. Denny McMahon offered him the suspension room job.
As Vicksburg School Board trustee and then president for 34 years, Skip Knowles watched Glaes progress up the ladder of achievement within the school district. "He went from there to principal at Indian Lake elementary school for three years, Middle School principal for 15 years, assistant superintendent for three years and finally superintendent in 2004."
"The suspension room offered me valuable experience," Glaes said. "I worked directly with a lot of students who needed help, socially, emotionally and academically. In addition, they were often angry as they came in. I had to learn to let it roll off my shoulders. Their anger was not about me. We had to make it about helping them to solve problems if possible. It was huge preparation for going into administration, and dealing with angry parents, staff and students."
Glaes came into the superintendent's job just as the state of Michigan was tanking financially. "I didn't like presiding over whittling away what we had accomplished over the last 20 years. We had built up so much [quality] and now we were cutting things. It was difficult to maintain the school's fiscal integrity and still keep the programs in place that make a school district attractive to students. We were asking staff to make sacrifices in the elementary, middle and high school. Those were dark days," Glaes recalled.
"We came out of it gradually and were able to maintain and even expand our amazing fine arts opportunities for which we're known," Glaes pointed out. That included the band, choir, art classes, film/video, drama and musical performances on display in the Celebration of the Arts presented every two years from the grade schools through high school. "Parents, grandparents and the community can see what is happening here, what kids are able to do when given these opportunities."
The stadium project was another example Glaes cited as one that opened up a whole new era of sports participation in the schools in 2006. "The old field, built on a swamp, was a mess. The track was unusable, the bleachers were scary. We were able to utilize the first three years of the countywide enhancement millage at no further taxpayer expense.
"I remember the first day we could officially use it. The cheerleaders were practicing in the end zone, the football teams, the soccer team all practiced on the same day, then the marching band in the evening and finally members of the community out walking the new track. In the years before, we could barely let the football team on it to play on Friday nights."
Glaes closed with his appreciation of the strong and inclusive culture in the Vicksburg School system. "Vicksburg provides the close relationships and caring of a smaller school with the depth and range of opportunities normally found in large ones. We help make all students college and career ready, so they graduate equipped to take the next step in their lives."
The Vicksburg Community Reflects on Charlie Glaes
Avery Slancik, a graduating senior, thanks Superintendent Glaes at the School Board meeting after he announced his retirement from the school system after 36 years.
"So glad you're doing a story on Charlie, they don't make them any better." – Deb Vliek, a former administrative assistant in Vicksburg schools, now with Kalamazoo Regional Service Agency (KRESA).
"I've always been impressed with Charlie's thorough attention to matters in front of him. He shares the same values as the teacher's union in having at the forefront of our decision-making ensuring that the education of our students is of the highest quality. He is well-educated in both academic matters and about the employees in his district. It will be difficult to find someone else so ingrained in the Vicksburg community to lead." – Liz Ratashak, science teacher Vicksburg High School, president of the Vicksburg Education Association.
"As the father of a Vicksburg student, I have been attending the school board meetings for over 10 years. As a district, we will miss Mr. Glaes. The board meetings were always professional, and from what I have witnessed, Charlie has moved our school district forward. Mr Glaes has positioned us to continue to move forward after his retirement. I wish Charlie well." – Steve Thomas, Vicksburg resident.
"I had the privilege of working with Charlie through my involvement with<|fim_middle|> 16 at 6 p.m. at Youz Guys Sausage, 8847 Portage Road. "Not only will we get a peek at their traditional methods of hand-crafting sausage, we will be able to sample some of their unbelievable sausages. Although this is a free event, space is limited so you'll want to reserve a spot," she said.
On Thursday, the community will have a chance to meet author Bob Cinabro, long-time Kalamazoo city attorney and city commissioner for two terms after that. He will talk about his book, "An Ellis Island Story: The Cinabros – A Recollection" at the Vicksburg District Library at 6:30 p.m. Stop by the Distant Whistle for Trivia game night at 8 p.m. "We hear that there might be a few questions about Italy," Bastos teased.
Love old movies? Linda Adams selected "Three Coins in the Fountain" for the Vicksburg Library's Movie Afternoons for Adults program on Friday, May 18 at 1 p.m. This movie garnered two Academy Awards in 1954 and stars Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire. It's a classic and follows the story of three American women sharing an apartment in Rome.
If all of this talk about Italian roots sets people to thinking about their own roots, Adams invites them to join the Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society at the Vicksburg Library on Saturday, May 19 at 1 p.m. to learn how to get started with their own genealogical search.
Finally, Saturday night, the VCAC will be presenting Destination: Italy at 5:30 p.m. at the Main Street Pub's Banquet Room in downtown Vicksburg. While listening to live classical music, enjoy Italian scenes through the eyes of photographer Shirley Weyrauch and pastel artist Helen Kleczynski. The KIAC will provide a pesto-making demonstration by Jack Bellware to whet guests' whistle for a gastronomical tour of Italy, specially created by Michael Moore and his staff. The tour continues with a fabulous dessert tour of Italy from Via Gelato. Guest speaker Bob Cinabro will talk about the split personality of Italy. Tickets must be reserved in advance through the Arts Center and are $30.
Contact Syd Bastos at (269)501-1347 for further information and reservations for the wine tasting, sausage tour or dinner event. Ciao! | the VCSF. I always found him to be an approachable, capable leader; genuine and personable with a great sense of humor. Whether serving the VCSF as a trustworthy, knowledgeable facilitator or capturing rubber ducks at the Annual Duck Derby fundraiser, he was passionate about his job and the district he served. Happy retirement Charlie!!" – Kim Klein, former president of the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation.
"Oh my goodness, I did not realize Mr. Glaes was retiring!! Of course, I would love to contribute! As a long-time student of Vicksburg Community Schools, I appreciate all of the hard work Mr. Glaes has put into improving the district. As a student who did drama, I am deeply thankful for his appreciation of the arts and his constant support and encouragement. He is always incredibly kind and it is a pleasure to know him." – Andrew Phelps, graduate of the class of 2017 and now a student at Spring Arbor University.
"Charlie has been a very responsive, dedicated and informed superintendent for the Vicksburg Community Schools. His leadership has been strong and positive. I will miss his infectious laugh and positive outlook even in the face of adversity. He has given unselfishly to make Vicksburg schools a leader in this area. I will miss him. I wish him well in retirement." – Carol Lohman, 34-year school board member.
"Charlie has been an inspirational leader and mentor over the last nine years that I have worked with him. I have come to admire these traits in Charlie: wisdom, integrity and grace. I will miss him tremendously." Gail Van Daff, Vicksburg Schools curriculum director.
"Charlie has contributed substantially to children across the Kalamazoo RESA service area by advocating for high quality shared programming in areas such as special education, education for employment (our area's career/technical education program), education for the arts and the professional development for educators. He is a leader among leaders. His wit, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to children will surely be missed." – Dave Campbell, KRESA superintendent.
"We have shared many great experiences and some very tough ones as well. Words just can't truly express the value of working with him. Charlie has kept us on the cutting edge, never forgetting what is in the best interest of kids. He has been a compassionate, firm and highly respected leader and I consider his retirement a huge loss for all of us. I have been privileged to work with him his entire time in Vicksburg and he is a true Bulldog!" – Skip Knowles, school board president.
"I always admired Charlie's ability to put people at ease while also moving them forward. He gave Vicksburg the full measure of his dedication and abilities and I am certain he is leaving an indelible mark." – Pat Reeves, former Vicksburg superintendent and associate professor, WMU.
Schoolcraft Schools Facilities Study Identifies Problems
May 12, 2018 Community, News, Schoolcraftjustingibson
Schoolcraft High School's track, stadium and tennis facilities were singled out by the facilities advisory committee in need of upgrades.
By Travis Smola
Results of a 2017 study of the Schoolcraft school district's facilities were presented to the public at two meetings in April by a committee including the school board, a facilities advisory committee, Brian Crissman of Christman Construction and two architects from architecture and engineering firm C2AE.
One thing they sought to make clear: There is no project. Right now, they are just presenting their findings to the community. "We are not going to be ready for a project next year," Secretary Jennifer Gottschalk said. "We've got to come up with a process. This is going to be painstakingly slow."
Trustee Jill VanDyken-Hunt said one of the options is to do nothing at all.
C2AE and Christman worked together with architects, mechanical and electrical engineers to walk through all the existing facilities at Schoolcraft schools. They looked at everything, including interior and exteriors, mechanical and electrical systems. They also looked at food services and education technology and adequacy.
The group gave each facility a score on a scale of 0-100 with higher being better. The high school fared the best, scoring 83 in part because it was built just 19 years ago. The older elementary building scored 61 and the middle school got a 53.
"While they are well-maintained, we are talking decades old," Steve Jurczuk, project manager and architect at C2AE said.
Jurczuk said things like mechanical systems are either at or beyond their end of life spans. In particular, the boilers at the middle school are of great concern. "Those are getting near end of life," Jurczuk said. "We're well beyond where we should be."
Also a big concern is security. In all three buildings, once someone is through the main entrance, the person can go anywhere without interacting with office staff. One possible solution: Creation of a security vestibule at the middle school where visitors would have to interact with office staff before being able to roam the building.
For the elementary and middle school, C2AE took photos during school dismissal times that show safety issues of children having to enter or cross into an active street to get to their parent's vehicles.
C2AE also said the middle school cafeteria creates scheduling issues. Because of the size of the room, there is only room for approximately 100 students at a time to eat lunch. This results in four different lunches, which cuts into class time. It also means lunch staff must work longer hours.
Other issues with the elementary and middle school include a flooding problem in the back parking lot, old windows that are not energy-efficient, storage issues in many classrooms and doors to classrooms that are not fire rated.
C2AE Buildings Group Leader and architect Bob McGraw said the stadium, track and tennis courts all have problems that need to be addressed, especially the courts. "The tennis courts are in very poor condition and those need to be reconstructed," McGraw said.
The track surface has divots in many places in the surface. McGraw said the standard now is an eight-lane track, while Schoolcraft's is only six. The extra lanes allow more events to be run quicker and in shorter time.
The press box also has ADA issues and the wood bleachers are in rough shape. There are also areas where the concrete is deteriorating.
For now, the groups will work to collect feedback from the community on how to proceed before their May board meeting where the results will be discussed further.
Community Provides Feedback on Facilities Study
Audience member Jenny Sportel in the center, commented on the facilities study. Seated on her left is Tracey Branch and Doug Ryskamp on the right.
After presenting their findings to the public at the two April meetings, the Schoolcraft school board and facilities advisory committee immediately began looking for feedback from the people in attendance.
Surveys put out by the board and committee showed many residents believe the elementary and middle schools are in good shape. But consultants said the results of the study have shown otherwise. That's why the meeting was held – to show members of the public the exact conditions at the schools. "We as board members thought it was really important to bring the community along with us," Trustee Jill Vandyken-Hunt said.
One of the biggest concerns immediately expressed concerned the middle school boiler issue and why maintenance has not been kept up on it. Board Secretary Jennifer Gottschalk said there isn't enough money to address the issue. A new boiler will cost approximately $1 million.
She said the district spends approximately $500,000 a year on maintenance already and other money that they have on hand is often already slated for things like teacher salaries.
"We need to think about a long-term goal and band-aids are not fixing the long-term problems we have," facilities committee member Wade Rutkoskie added.
Schoolcraft village Trustee John Stodola said he was struck by the age of the buildings and noted they weren't really designed for the larger classes and technology of today. "A new boiler won't fix that," Stodola said. He said his opinion was to build new because he hopes his grandchildren will have children in the district one day.
Several parents in the audience with young children agreed and said the issues brought up were of major concern because they planned to be in the village for the long haul. One mother said she is willing to make some extra sacrifices to pay more for the good of the community.
Kelli Brussee, a kindergarten teacher at the elementary school, spoke about handicap accessibility within the elementary and middle schools. "I have a student in a wheelchair. It's hard," Brussee said.
Gottschalk addressed a question about a possible location of new buildings, noting the district owns a piece of land near the high school that might be suitable.
More than one audience member expressed concern that school-of-choice parents aren't paying taxes that would cover any project. The board acknowledged this is true, but elementary principal Matt Webster said those students bring along federal and state funds that go into programming.
"It's not that they're walking in free of charge and we're just burdened with this debt to educate them."
Before the meeting ended, those in the audience were handed community support surveys asking what specific projects they would support and what they would not. The survey also asked their level of support for the formation of a committee to develop a bond issue proposal.
A bond issue isn't the only possible option. Another is a sinking fund. But trustees noted a sinking fund would probably be used to address existing options. A bond issue would be needed for new buildings.
The board continually emphasized there are no plans of yet, and one option is do nothing at all. They urged those in the audience to talk to neighbors, family and friends about the issue. A final report and committee determination will be made at the May board meeting.
Historical Society Opens for the Season
May 12, 2018 Community, News, Vicksburgjustingibson
Buildings at 101 and 103 East Prairie in Vicksburg as they appeared in 1892.
Buildings at 101 and 103 East Prairie in Vicksburg as they appear in 2018.
By April Bryan, Depot Museum Curator
New displays, more open buildings, and a special exhibition will help Vicksburg Historical Society, Depot Museum, and Historic Village launch its 50th season, opening May 24 at 300 N. Richardson Street. Vicksburg's hometown history hub will welcome visitors Thursday through Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. through December.
A special exhibition, "Then and Now: Our Changing Landscape in Photographs", explores the ways Vicksburg and its surrounding areas have changed over time. The exhibition pairs historic photographs and real photo postcards with current snapshots to contrast the face of Vicksburg yesterday and today.
It asks questions: Where was Vicksburg's first frame building and what's on the site now? How does downtown look today compared with the late 19th century? What businesses operated through the years in the spaces where you shop, eat, work, and play today? These questions and more are answered in this new exhibition, which also draws on related artifacts from the museum's collection.
"Then and Now" highlights sites including the Sun Theatre, Dancer›s, the White Front, Vicksburg Governor Works, the Fulton Hotel and Lee Paper Company. This special exhibition, displayed in the Depot Museum, is presented free of charge and may be enjoyed when the Depot is open or by special reservation.
Throughout the season, visitors can explore new displays and see recent acquisitions added to the Historic Village buildings. Get some vintage retail therapy in the General Store, relive sweet memories in the Sweet Shop, and picture yourself as a student in the one-room Strong School. Uncover snapshots of your friends and family within the yearbooks, newspapers, and photo albums lining the Depot shelves. Enjoy a picnic in the Gazebo, toss a ball with your pup, and take a romantic stroll throughout the village. Kids will have fun boarding the cherry red caboose and sounding the new interactive Ford brakes in the Village Garage.
Grant Applications for United Way Funding are Available
The Vicksburg United Way committee is ready to receive applications for funding in 2018, according to the new chairperson Fawn Callen. She has agreed to take over for veteran Laura Howard who was deeply involved in the fundraising campaign and allocating the locally raised proceeds.
This year, the community will have $22,098 to allocate. What is raised in Vicksburg stays in Vicksburg, Callen pointed out. Of the total, $11,124 was raised by the schools, with a large increase in teacher participation—from 27 percent of the staff giving to 40 percent.
Assisting in the decision making will be another new member: Alyssa Thompson, Community Education Director for Vicksburg Community Schools who has taken over for 20-year veteran Tonya Nash. Travis Cree from Zoetis, Danna Downing from South County Community Services, Carol Lohman and Sue Moore have been long-time members of the United Way committee.
Last year, the committee allocated funds to provide outreach to isolated seniors to make sure they are receiving the help they need with food, transportation, crisis intervention and financial assistance. This service was provided by South County Community Services. New back-to-school shoes were provided for 85 children through a partnership with Generous Hands and First Day Shoe Fund.
To receive a grant application form or to turn in a completed form, contact Fawn Callen at fawncallen@gmail.com. Applications are due by May 31.
Italy comes to Vicksburg in Many Different Ways
Kaye Bennett of Vicksburg is in a Venice gondola while on a trip to Italy. Photo by Bill Krasean.
The Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center (VCAC) has partnered with the Kalamazoo Italian American Club (KIAC) to bring the arts and culture of Italy to Vicksburg residents and visitors May 14 through May 19.
"All week long, you'll see Italian special menu items at Rise-N-Dine, Italian-inspired soaps and lotions at PET Emporium and special window displays at Home Again Consignment. You'll hear Italian music and see Italian art all around town," said Syd Bastos, the center's executive director.
Starting Monday, May 14, at 6:30, the Arts Center will host a free Italian Game Night at the Gallery, 101 E. Prairie in downtown Vicksburg. Vince Westra from the KIAC will teach people how to play Scopa, a popular Italian card game, and there will be a tournament with prizes for winners. The KIAC will also bring other popular games for display during this event.
Wine is an important beverage in the Italian community; Tuesday, May 15, at 6 p.m. Jaspare's will be hosting a wine tasting. Wine experts will be on hand to share the significance of wine in Italian-American families. Food will be paired with this event. Tickets are $20 per person. Seating is limited and reservations are required.
"Sicily is known for its sausage. Although we can't take you there, we found the next best thing," Bastos said. Chris Capalbo will share how Italians make sausage on Wednesday, May | 3,237 |
We had ourselves an adventure — just me, Zack and Addie (Da-da had to work).
We crossed five states for four different visits in about 10 days and 20-plus hours of driving. There were chickey kisses and ocean waves and everything in between.
The most relaxing, heart-warming time sitting in Chochie's yard watching kids frolic in dirt, hide treasures in secret corners and splash to their hearts' content in a bright blue bird bath.
Snuggles nightly with two tired ones. Holding them close and re-learning their breathing and sighs. Watching little hands and fingers as we all fell asleep.
Addie greeting me every day with, "Good morning, Momma! How did you sleep? Addie wake up!" You can't help but start your day on a positive note with that.
At nighttime, I would<|fim_middle|> rest of the world and just observe. I learned much about the babies in these 10 days.
The love and hospitality of our many hosts, who dealt with difficult bedtimes and early-mornings and sometimes my need to just stop. I appreciate your open doors and open hearts.
This was an amazing adventure. | remind the kids of what we did that day — who we saw, where we were, etc. One night after a 4th of July picnic at my Dad's and plenty of big cousins to play with, I asked Zack what was his favorite part. Typically, he just repeats "favorite part" with a smile. That day, he grinned a huge grin and said, "Play with kids!" How sweet.
I learned all of the words to one of the songs from a DVD we brought with us for the car time.
Cousins Ryan and Kevin in Massachusetts always dote on Z&A. It's so amazing to see their love for their little cousins. They introduced the kids to some of their old toys, and a baby frog and the beloved guinea pigs, which are a HUGE hit. (We actually have to tell Zack the piggies are sleeping quite often or else they get no break from their noisy visitor). Addie snatched snap peas from Becky's garden and took charge on a walk around the neighborhood. Cousin Mark was welcomed home from work with two squealing "hewwo"s from little people. We all laughed at Addie's love for pickles and Zack's sweet tooth, but mostly we just laughed.
Seeing my Dad and Uncle "Brick" together was so great. They are two peas in a pod. I love them both so much for their humor and kindness and compassion, wrapped up in tough-guy exteriors. Crazy fun watching them drink beers and blow bubbles with the kids on our last day.
My friend Nicole and her man Jeff have created a beautiful life together and just seeing her, with him, in their cozy and cute home was a delight. They're still collecting the Cheerios we left for them in every crevice imaginable. Truth or Truth with wine until 3am was simultaneously the best and worst idea we had, haha!
At the beach, the kiddos surprised me. Zack went straight for the water and couldn't be removed without major coaxing and Addie was quite content to play in the sand and sprinkle water (fetched by Momma every three minutes) from her watering can onto my toes.
Having a chance to disconnect from the | 448 |
ANAHEIM, Calif., Dec. 5, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. (Nasdaq:PSUN) (the "Company"), announced today that net sales from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 ended November 2, 2013, were $206.6 million versus net sales from continuing operations of $215.5 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ended October 27, 2012. The 53rd week retail calendar shift resulted in a decrease in net sales of approximately $11 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2012. Comparable store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 increased 1%. The Company ended the third quarter of fiscal 2013 with 635 stores versus 722 stores a year ago.
On a GAAP basis, the Company reported income from continuing operations of $17.2 million, or $<|fim_middle|> correct or create an obligation to provide any other updates. | 0.23 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to income from continuing operations of $3.4 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2012. Income from continuing operations for the Company's third quarter of fiscal 2013 included a non-cash gain of $23.4 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, compared to a non-cash gain of $5.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 related to the derivative liability that resulted from the issuance of the Convertible Series B Preferred Stock (the "Series B Preferred") in connection with the term loan financing the Company completed in December 2011.
On a non-GAAP basis, excluding the non-cash gain on the derivative liability and store closure related charges, and using a normalized annual income tax rate of approximately 37%, the Company would have incurred a loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 of $3.6 million, or $(0.05) per diluted share, as compared to a loss from continuing operations of $1.4 million, or $(0.02) per diluted share, for the same period a year ago.
"The third quarter marks our seventh consecutive quarter of positive comparable store sales and had there not been the 53rd week calendar shift, our non-GAAP loss per diluted share would have been break-even compared to the $0.02 loss last year," said Gary H. Schoenfeld, President and Chief Executive Officer. "As we transition into the peak holiday season, we have had a strong start in November with comparable store sales up 6% driven by a number of factors including: strength in our emerging brands and unique product assortment, colder weather, and strong Black Friday performance. Overall, we believe our results continue to validate the unique positioning we are establishing for PacSun as we strive to become the leading specialty retailer for great brands and on-trend fashion and fashion basics."
The Company's guidance range for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 contemplates a non-GAAP loss per diluted share from continuing operations of between negative $0.17 and negative $0.12 and includes the impact of the 53rd week retail calendar shift.
Applicable non-GAAP adjustments are tax effected using a normalized annual income tax rate of approximately 37%.
The Company's fourth fiscal quarter of 2013 guidance range excludes the quarterly impact of the change in the fair value of the derivative liability due to the inherently variable nature of this financial instrument.
In accordance with applicable accounting literature and consistent with the Company's financial statement presentation in its fiscal 2012 annual report, the Company has reclassified the results of operations of its closed stores as discontinued operations for all periods presented, as applicable.
In fiscal 2011, as a result of the issuance of the Series B Preferred in connection with the Company's $60 million senior secured term loan financing with an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, the Company recorded a derivative liability equal to approximately $15 million, which represents the fair value of the Series B Preferred upon issuance. In accordance with applicable U.S. GAAP, the Company has marked this derivative liability to fair value through earnings and will continue to do so on a quarterly basis until the shares of Series B Preferred are either converted into shares of the Company's common stock or until the conversion rights expire (December 2021). A key driver used in determining the fair value of the derivative liability each quarter is the Company's stock price. As the stock price decreases, the fair value of the derivative liability generally will also decrease. For example, the Company's stock price for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 ended November 2, 2013, was $2.59 compared to $4.47 for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 ended August 3, 2013, which resulted in a non-cash gain of $23.4 million in the third quarter.
Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, "PacSun" or the "Company") is a leading specialty retailer rooted in the action sports, fashion and music influences of the California lifestyle. The Company sells a combination of branded and proprietary casual apparel, accessories and footwear designed to appeal to teens and young adults. As of December 5, 2013, the Company operates 635 stores in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. PacSun's website address is www.pacsun.com.
The Company will be hosting a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time to review the results of its third fiscal quarter. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available, beginning approximately two hours following the call, for one week and can be accessed in the United States and Canada at (855) 859-2056 or internationally at (404) 537-3406; passcode: 16601726. For those unable to listen to the live Web broadcast or utilize the call-in replay, an archived version will be available on the Company's investor relations website through midnight, March 18, 2014.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, the statements made by Mr. Schoenfeld in the fourth paragraph and the statements made by the Company under the heading "Financial Outlook for Fourth Fiscal Quarter of 2013." In each case, these statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that these forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. These statements are not historical facts and involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Uncertainties that could adversely affect the Company's business and results include, among others, the following factors: increased sourcing and product costs; adverse changes in U.S. and world economic conditions generally; adverse changes in consumer spending; changes in consumer demands and preferences; adverse changes in same-store sales; higher than anticipated markdowns and/or higher than estimated selling, general and administrative costs; currency fluctuations; competition from other retailers and uncertainties generally associated with apparel retailing; merchandising/fashion risk; lower than expected sales from private label merchandise; reliance on key personnel; economic impact of natural disasters, terrorist attacks or war/threat of war; shortages of supplies and/or contractors as a result of natural disasters or terrorist acts, which could cause unexpected delays in store relocations, renovations or expansions; reliance on foreign sources of production; and other risks outlined in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including but not limited to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2013, and subsequent periodic reports filed with the SEC. Historical results achieved are not necessarily indicative of future prospects of the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after such statements are made. Nonetheless, the Company reserves the right to make such updates from time to time by press release, periodic report or other method of public disclosure without the need for specific reference to this press release. No such update shall be deemed to indicate that other statements not addressed by such update remain | 1,609 |
We heart this: Behind in-meeting emoji in Meet
Home » Blog » We heart this: Behind in-meeting emoji in Meet
March 31, 2022March 31, 2022By admin
Carolien Postma is used to testing and retesting (and retesting) new features. She's a user experience (UX) researcher at Google, a role she describes as "making sure that whatever we build and create, that it actually creates value for our users and that it actually does what our users need it to do."
Over the past nine months, she's been part of the team testing the upcoming emoji reactions for Google Meet. "This release was<|fim_middle|> or similar things across cultures," Carolien says. Because other Google products use emoji and emoji reactions, they were able to take a look at this research to inform the new feature. You'll see that the experience is configured in a way that lets people easily give a thumbs up, clap or heart.
Previous PostMicrosoft acquires Minit to strengthen process mining capabilitiesNext PostVerifica los hechos con estas funciones de Google | about giving people an easy way to express their feelings and feedback in a way that helped everyone in a call feel more connected," Carolien says. "This was a fun one, too, because it's something I can point to that makes my work tangible!"
While the work was certainly fun, it was also important: Emoji help teams celebrate wins and offer support, and it's important they represent everyone. Because of this, there were plenty of research hours behind the project. Here are a few of the things Carolien and her fellow UX researchers on the team investigated, and how this work turned up in the final designs.
Emoji for all.
Carolien and her team worked hard to ensure choosing the right emoji was seamless. "We wanted to include emoji that are universally understood, and mean the same | 160 |
paulkid: Epic Westerns set in Texas and Mexico, McMurtry is more somber, McCarthy more dark.
whymaggiemay: Both have a wonderful, authentic flavor of the old west.
I finally read this American classic and I loved it.<|fim_middle|> woman. They say he missed that whore."
Larry McMurtry, in books like The Last Picture Show, has depicted the modern degeneration of the myth of the American West. The subject of Lonesome Dove, cowboys herding cattle on a great trail-drive, seems like the very stuff of that cliched myth, but McMurtry bravely tackles the task of creating meaningful literature out of it. At first the novel seems the kind of anti-mythic, anti-heroic story one might expect: the main protagonists are a drunken and inarticulate pair of former Texas Rangers turned horse rustlers. Yet when the trail begins, the story picks up an energy and a drive that makes heroes of these men. Their mission may be historically insignificant, or pointless--McMurtry is smart enough to address both possibilities--but there is an undoubted valor in their lives. The result is a historically aware, intelligent, romantic novel of the mythic west that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. | I get why it is as popular as it is - great characters, interesting time period and setting, exciting plot - what's not to like? Well, I didn't love all the violence and I think the relations with Native Americans were certainly oversimplified. And I wished that I personally had more background on the Texas Rangers, as the two main characters had been Rangers and I don't know much about that time period. I gather there are prequels to this novel that cover some of that. For a Western, there were some decent women characters, which is sort of a rarity, so I appreciated that.
I think the greatness here really lies in the characters and the way McMurtry slowly reveals characteristics and relationships throughout the novel. Gus, Call, Lorena, Clara, Newt, Pea Eye, Deets - they are all unforgettable.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. No wonder it won a Pulitzer!
It was beautifully written. So much so that I felt as if I was transported back into that time period.
I saw the film long before I even knew it was a book and I can say they got the casting right! I could clearly picture every character and they all felt right to me.
It was slow paced, but not in a bad way. It truly told the whole story without a lot of time skips or with the reader having to forgive the author for not giving a better explaination of things. When I started the book, I felt like I already knew the story, but I know I was wrong. NOW I know the story.
As big and epic as the book is, it will find its way to my re-read shelf with The Lord of the Rings, Harty Potter and all the other books that can make me cry.
All of Mr. McMurtry's antimythic groundwork -his refusal to glorify the West - works to reinforce the strength of the traditionally mythic parts of ''Lonesome Dove,'' by making it far more credible than the old familiar horse operas. These are real people, and they are still larger than life. The aspects of cowboying that we have found stirring for so long are, inevitably, the aspects that are stirring when given full-dress treatment by a first-rate novelist. Toward the end, through a complicated series of plot twists, Mr. McMurtry tries to show how pathetically inadequate the frontier ethos is when confronted with any facet of life but the frontier; but by that time the reader's emotional response is it does not matter - these men drove cattle to Montana!
Used to go dashing . . ."
When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake—not a very big one.
"The | 558 |
For example, in an opinion poll, possible sampling frames include an electoral register and<|fim_middle|> confuse what is meant by random selection with the idea of random.
Finally, in some cases (such as designs with a large number of strata, or those with a specified minimum sample size per group), stratified sampling can potentially require a larger sample than would other methods (although in most cases, the required sample size would be no larger than would be required for simple random sampling.Describes probability and non-probability samples, from convenience samples to multistage random samples.
Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g., people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we may fairly generalize our.
The group you wish to generalize to is often called the population.Total errors can be classified into sampling errors and non-sampling errors.Permits greater balancing of statistical power of tests of differences between strata by sampling equal numbers from strata varying widely in size.
The variables upon which the population is stratified are strongly correlated with the desired dependent variable.In sampling, this includes defining the population from which our sample is drawn.Hence, because the selection of elements is nonrandom, nonprobability sampling does not allow the estimation of sampling errors.Two advantages of sampling are that the cost is lower and data collection is faster than measuring the entire population.Korn, E.L., and Graubard, B.I. (1999) Analysis of Health Surveys, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-13773-1.Samples are then identified by selecting at even intervals among these counts within the size variable.
Sampling methods are used to select a sample from within a general population.
In the example above, an interviewer can make a single trip to visit several households in one block, rather than having to drive to a different block for each household.Each observation measures one or more properties (such as weight, location, color) of observable bodies distinguished as independent objects or individuals.As the name implies, convenience sampling involves choosing respondents at the convenience of the researcher.
In this example, the accessible population might be homeless males between.
However, in the more general case this is not usually possible or practical.Because there is very rarely enough time or money to gather information from everyone or everything in a population, the goal becomes finding a representative sample (or subset) of that population. Dillman, and A. Don. How to conduct your own survey. No. 300.723 S3. 1994.It is this second step which makes the technique one of non-probability sampling.Sampling Procedures There are many sampling procedures that have been developed to ensure that a sample adequately represents the target population.While methods of data collection and data analysis represent the core of research methods, you have to address a range of additional.
A visual representation of selecting a random sample using the systematic sampling technique.Purposive sampling (also known as judgment, selective or subjective sampling) is a sampling technique in which researcher relies on his or her own judgment when.
Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.Lohr, Sharon L. (1999). Sampling: Design and analysis. Duxbury. ISBN.Sample of Sampling Methods Essay (you can also order custom written Sampling Methods essay).Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikipedia store.This was a presentation that was carried out in our research method class by our group. | a telephone directory.Under-coverage: Sampling frame does not include elements in the population.ASTM E122 Standard Practice for Calculating Sample Size to Estimate, With a Specified Tolerable Error, the Average for Characteristic of a Lot or Process.
At this point, you should appreciate that sampling is a difficult multi-step process.Cluster sampling is commonly implemented as multistage sampling.
In statistics, quality assurance, and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a statistical population to.People often | 109 |
A tribute to Johnny Podres
from the Salerno Family
The Salernos send their deepest condolences to the Podres family; Joan who is one magnificent woman, Joey who played high school baseball with Randy, and John Jr. who went to school with Tim -- we remember you all fondly.
Pat Salerno Jr. & Johnny
We are writing this personal note because Johnny touched everyone's life in many ways. To the Salernos, however, Johnny was not only a great athlete and outdoorsman, but a very dear friend.
It all started when Johnny and our father, Pat Sr., were signed by the same scout (Alex Isabelle) of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950's. Our father tells many stories of them meeting up at Vero Beach during Spring Training.
Johnny loved to fish especially on Lincoln Pond and ice fish on Lake Champlain...but he also liked to deer hunt. Throughout the years, we would talk to Johnny about<|fim_middle|> collection of memorabilia from Johnny's years with Brooklyn, as well as Los Angeles, from 1952 to present, game worn All-Star and coaching jerseys, gloves, hats, yearbooks and baseballs to name a few. All because of his love for Johnny "Pod."
Labor Day Parade Grand Marshall
So to Johnny "Pod" and the past great athletes and outdoorsmen of this area, your dedication and perseverance to excel in your endeavors, is an inspiration to all. Thanks "Pod" for your love of the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and life itself -- always to be remembered not only by us, but also the people of Witherbee, Mineville, Moriah and Port Henry.
The Salerno Family
Visit JohnnyPodres.com
View some of Johnny's actual game-worn jerseys
Back to SalernoBrothers.com | our hunting of Adirondack whitetail deer and he would chat about his early days of hunting and fishing which he enjoyed immensely, as did we. We loved giving Johnny venison and sharing some of our pictures with him. We knew how much he appreciated not only the venison but the stories of our hunts too.
Pat Jr. has spent many years acquiring a very extensive | 76 |
TEDxAmsterdam 2011 Human Brain
Rutger Hauer, The Dutch National Ballet and Amsterdam's creative community make brains from people, an Idea Worth Doing. This is the dress rehearsal of the first human brain in a series of three.
More about TEDxAmsterdam 2011 and TEDxAmsterdamTV
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Elephants join clean-up effort after floods in Thailand
Thailand begins clean up after record floods
Almost four months after Thailand's worst floods in half a century, people in the suburbs of the capital are still waist deep in water as clean up operations get under way.
Residents say they are paying the price for the government's efforts to keep the inner part of the city dry.
In some areas the government has offered households $150 for repairs, but this aid has not been extended to everyone yet.
Les Halles: The Rose Window by MVRDV
The refurbishment and re-engagement of Forum Les Halles through a series of precise interventions leading eventually to a new 'Grand Projet' in the centre of Paris. The Forum plan includes opening of the main metro station in Paris to daylight, as well as radical improvements to the surrounding facilities such as cultural amenities, a pool, the shopping streets, the metro stops, the underground roads, the parking lots at the Forum by centering them around an underground valley covered by a gigantic 'rose window
Ordos Museum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia by MAD Architects
This movie tours a remote museum in Inner Mongolia, recently completed by Beijing architects MAD. The polished metal-clad museum is located in Ordos, where 100 private villas by different architects were masterplanned by artist Ai Weiwei back in 2008 -- see all our stories about the project here.
China Comic & Animation Museum (CCAM) in Hangzhou, China by MVRDV
Hangzhou urban planning bureau has announced MVRDV winner of the international design competition for the China Comic and Animation Museum (CCAM) in Hangzhou, China. MVRDV won with a design referring to the speech balloon: a series of eight speech balloon shaped volumes create an internally complex museum experience of in total 32.000m2. Part of the project is also a series of parks on islands, a public plaza and a 13.000m2 expo centre. Construction start is envisioned for 2012, the total budget is 92 million Euro.
Comics and animations have long been considered a form of entertainment for the younger generations but develop more and more into a sophisticated art form. The initiative for a museum especially for this relatively recent art form creates a platform which will unite the worlds of art and entertainment. By using one of the cartoon's prime characteristics -- the speech balloon -- the building will instantly be recognized as place for cartoons, comics and animations. The neutral speech balloon becomes 3d.
The 32.000m2 are divided into eight volumes which are interconnected allowing for a circular visit of the entire program. Services such as the lobby, education, three theatres/cinemas with in total 1111 seats and a comic book library occupy each their own balloon. If two balloons touch in the interior a large opening allows access and views in-between the volumes. The balloon shape allows for supple exhibitions, the permanent collection is presented in a chronological spiral whereas the temporary exhibition hall offers total flexibility. Amsterdam based exhibition architects Kossman.deJong tested the spaces and designed exhibition configurations which appeal to different age groups and allow large crowds to visit the exhibition. One of the balloons is devoted to interactive experience in which visitors can actively experiment with all sorts of animation techniques like blue screen, stop motion, drawing, creating emotions etc. The core attraction of this space is a gigantic 3D zoetrope. The routing of the museum permits short or long visits, visits to the cinema, the temporary exhibition or the roof terrace restaurant. The façade of the museum is covered in a cartoon relief referring to a Chinese vase. The monochrome white concrete façade allows the speech balloons to function: texts can be projected onto the façade. The relief was designed in collaboration with Amsterdam based graphic designers JongeMeesters.
Most of the 13.7 ha site is occupied by a new park on a series of islands in White Horse Lake. Reed beds are used to improve the water quality. Boat rides offer an added attraction. A separate expo building of 25.000m2 will house large fairs and the annual China International Comic and Animation Festival (CICAF). In-between expo and CCAM a public plaza will be the centre of this festival which is the county's largest cartoon and animation event and has been held annually in Hangzhou since 2005.
Hangzhou is a metropolis with 6.4 million inhabitants 180 km southwest of Shanghai. The Museum will become a new focal point on the less populated southern side of Qiantang river. The CCAM will consolidate the city's leading position as China's capital of the animation industry. The first phase of the Comic and Animation Centre is close to completion, the series of hill-shaped buildings containing offices, a hotel and a conference centre. The new museum will be the icon of this larger development.
The museum will contain a multitude of interventions such as ground storage, natural ventilation and adiabatic cooling, all focused towards an excellent energy efficiency rating. The structural concept by Arup enhances the sustainable profile of the building: the aerodynamic design results in even wind pressure and lower need for air-conditioning. The box in box construction of the bubbles permits different conditions inside the building and improves the energy efficiency.
MVRDV won the competition of EMBT, Atelier Bow Wow, Tongji Institute of Architectural Design and Tsinghua Architectural Design. The MVRDV team consists further of Kossman.deJong exhibition architects, local architect Zhubo Architectural & Engineering Design, Arup engineers and JongeMeesters graphic design.
Queen Rania on The Employment Challenge at the World Economic Forum
Her Majesty delivers opening remarks during the plenary session: Addressing The Employment Challenge at the World Economic Forum, held at the Dead Sea, Jordan in October, 2011
Coen van Oostrom OVG on stage with Bill Clinton at CGI 2011
Coen van Oostrom, CEO and founder of OVG, received Wednesday, September 21 a special recognition from President Clinton for being a true incubator for sustainable real estate in the market.
In 2007 OVG committed to invest $1 billion in the development of sustainable buildings to reduce their energy use up to 60 percent. In 2010 OVG completed this commitment a promising two years ahead of schedule. Today Mr. Van Oostrom will announce his second billion-dollar Commitment to Action at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting.
The new commitment is called the Global Climate Change Real Estate Fund. OVG Real Estate, the European leader in sustainable real estate development, aims to work closely together with the so called C40 cities network, another Clinton initiative. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions locally that will help address climate change globally.
Operationally, OVG Real Estate will invest $1 billion in the next five years in this global fund and a knowledge network and online platform to catalyze sustainable development in the built environment through environmentally sound new building construction and retrofits of existing buildings. The fund will be a model for large-scale financing of climate positive real estate development.
By 2020, 55% of global construction spending will be in developing countries, according to 2010 global construction perspectives. The next decade will see a continuing shift towards Asia and other emerging markets where rising populations, rapid urbanization and strong economic growth are the drivers for construction according to Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics. That is the reason why OVG Real Estate wants to share her advanced expertise on sustainable development with fast developing cities. The upcoming years, OVG will focuses on cities like Paris, London, Berlin, New York to start with.
Can 'Occupy Wall Street' Survive? #OccupyWallStreet
Protesters return to NY park without tents. Some analysts say the Occupy movement will need to change their strategy to continue. AP's Bonny Ghosh reports.
The Euro Plus Pact by Herman van Rompuy at The Lisbon Council
European Council President Herman van Rompuy on Thursday addressed the current economic and financial challenges facing the euro countries and the rest of the European Union during a keynote speech at the 2011 Euro Summit organized by The Lisbon Council in Brussels
Is China's $6 trillion economy on a bubble?
The world's second-largest economy could be slowing after decades of record growth.
Yep, the world is on a bubble and the biggest bubble in the world we can find in the United States of America
How to replace a 60 Watt Light Bulb with Philips 12.5 Watt AmbientLED A19 LED Light Bulb
The Philips AmbientLED A19 12.5 Watt is the world's first Energy Star qualified LED replacement for a 60W incandescent bulb Philips AmbientLED 12.5W has met or exceeded the quality and energy efficiency requirements for a 60W LED equivalent set forth by ENERGY STAR, proving that it is a highly-efficient, cost-effective lighting option for consumers. The bulb lasts 25 times longer and uses 80% less energy than the 60W incandescent it was designed to replace.
Fuel Efficient Vehicles Dominate 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show
The LA Auto Show has built a reputation for being a "green" show, exhibiting fuel efficient debuts in new cars and trucks. But as the AP's John Mone reports, automakers are trying to marry better miles per gallon with performance.
TEDxSanJoaquin 2011: Breathing New Air into Tradition on the dan Tranh by Van-Anh Vanessa Vo
Van-Anh Vanessa Vo dedicates her life to creating music on the dan Tranh (16-string zither) and fusing her traditional Vietnamese foundation with a freshness of new structures and compositions. Since settled in California, she has been a collaborator and solo artist with such musicians and groups as Kronos Quartet, Nguyen Le, Paul McCandless, Ali Ryerson, Charles Loos, SOMEI Taiko Ensemble, Wobbly World, as well as lending her talents to fundraising events for several non-profit organizations. Continually cultivates the beauty and versatility of the dan Tranh to feature her beloved instrument in an international music genre, Van-Anh has been co-composer and arranger for the Oscar nomimated and Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Daughter from Danang (2002), the Emmy Award-winning film and soundtrack for Bolinao 52 (2008), and the multiple award-winning film A Village Called Versailles (2009). Recently, Van-Anh released her newest CD "She's Not She" with award-winning composer Do Bao.
Van-Anh began studying dan tranh from the age of four, and graduated with distinction from and taught at the Vietnam Academy of Music. In 1995, Van-Anh won championship in the Vietnam National Dan Tranh Competition along with the first prize for best solo performance of modern folk music. She has since performed in more than fourteen countries and recorded in many broadcast programs inside and outside of Vietnam. Her first CD "Twelve Months, Four Seasons" was released in 2002.
In addition to dan tranh, Van-Anh also performs as soloist on the monochord (bau), the 36-string hammered dulcimer (dan tam thap luc), the bamboo xylophone (dan t'rung), the k'longput, traditional drums (trong), and Chinese guzheng. She lives and teaches dan tranh and other Vietnamese traditional instruments in Fremont, California.
US millionaires ask Congress to 'Raise our taxes'
Nearly 140 millionaires asked a divided US Congress on Wednesday to increase their taxes for the sake of the nation.
"Please do the right thing," the entrepreneurs and business leaders wrote President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, noting that they benefited from a sound economy and now want others to do so. "Raise our taxes."
The letter was signed by 138 members of "Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength." The group was created a year ago during a failed bid to persuade Congress to end tax cuts for millionaires enacted under Republican former President George W. Bush.
The group is now making the same request of a 12-member congressional "super committee," which is struggling to reach a bipartisan deal to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade in order to help put the nation on sound financial footing.
Occupy Protesters Start March to DC #OccupyWallStreet
Approximately two dozen Occupy Wall Street protesters started a two-week walk from New York to Washington on Wednesday. The activists left Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, marched past the World Trade Center site and boarded a ferry to New Jersey
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Popular Choice Winner: Green Search
CGSearch is a mobile Green IT application that would enable users across United States to know and visually compare the air quality index, air pollutant levels, energy consumption of various cites of US and compare same with Atlanta.
These cities denote the places for example where the users would like to travel for a short holiday/vacation/deputation/permanent stay. Names of cities whose data are currently available and travel options are listed in the application. Users can pick any option from the list and view the graphical data. Users can reset the graph by using the homepage icon. Government of United States of America has been recording these environmental variables (data) by placing sensors at different part of certain cities.
These are available for general public and CGSearch used the historic data to build models that would help to generate/predict data for the future. http://ec2-174-129-212-31.compute-1.amazonaws.com/cgsearch/cgsearch.html
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Best Student Winner: Environmental Justice Participatory Mapping
The online map developed in this project uses data from the EPA 2007 Abandon Uranium Mines and the Navajo Nation: Atlas with Geospatial Data to give citizens access to basic information on unregulated water sources and abandoned urnanium mine features. The map also provides citizens with the basic tools to visulize the spatial elements of potential environmental hazards.
Environmental Justice is a relatively new field for environmental advocacy. One the many attributes that is illustrative of environmental injustice is proximity to pollution. Developments in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the gathering of spatial data have furthered the implications of environmental justice. The GIS technical expertise is not always available to grassroots organizations and thus the spatial nexus is sometimes missing in the struggle for justice. This project was designed to assist the Navajo grassroots organization The Forgotten People in both policy development and participatory mapping. http://www.wwu.edu/huxley/spatial/fppm/
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Winner: EarthFriend
EarthFriend -- an innovative take on the EPA's Apps for the Environment Competition. This iPhone/iPod/iPad application incorporates interactive educational games, fast facts, and database importation from the EPA's very own databases. By including both games and data, this application suits a wide variety of audiences. All three points are implemented in four categories: Climate, Water Pollution, Air Pollution, and Land Pollution. A fifth category, What Can You Do?, encourages the user to take action in going green! We tried to build off of Lisa Jackson's "Seven Priorities for EPA's Future". We are willing to update the app per valid requests.
Now available for download from Apple's App Store for free! Hope you enjoy! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earthfriend/id455165523?mt=8
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Winner: Hootroot
Hootroot helps you navigate efficiently from point A to point B. Powered by web services from Brighter Planet, Google Maps, and HopStop, the app provides directions and carbon footprints for driving, transit, flight, and human-powered transportation options on any route.
Data for footprint calculations comes from the EPA's US Greenhouse Gas Inventory and eGRID database, as well as from DOT, EIA, and others. As a web app, it requires no installation -- simply head to http://hootroot.com and start using the tool. Give a hoot, green your route.
India's Solar Market to Reach 9 GW by 2016
India could see over 9 GW of solar installed between 2011 and 2<|fim_middle|>1
If the world were 100 people, what would it look like? The 100 People Foundation is committed to simplifying and humanizing complex global statistics by looking at the world as a community of 100 people. We provide media and educational tools to teachers around the world to help them teach a global view, and inspire their students to learn more about their global neighbors.
Fairtrade Towns: Energizing your community to change the world
Nine out of ten of us have heard of Fairtrade bananas, but what's a Fairtrade Town? Just a few of the faces behind this rapidly growing grassroots movement explain how it started, what it's all about, what Fairtrade Towns achieve and how anyone, anywhere can be part of it. This short film will inspire you through the power of ordinary people coming together to do extraordinary things in their own communities and beyond.
Oxfam calls on the New Forests Company to investigate Uganda land grabs ...
In Uganda, more than 20,000 people were evicted, some forcibly, from their homes and the land they depended on, to make way for the New Forest Company's plantations. Oxfam went to Uganda to hear how villagers have been left destitute, without enough food or money to send their children to school. Many villagers believe that the company was involved in the evictions. Oxfam is calling for the New Forests Company, which denies that it was involved in any evictions, to investigate these claims.
Join Oxfam's campaign to help stop land grabs and to fix the food system: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/grab
The forgotten crisis in Somaliand
Where is Our Food Coming From?
See how most farm animals are raised in the United States and how going meat-free even one day a week can help prevent animal cruelty.
Ohio Dangerous Exotics Pet Trade
It's up to Ohio's Governor Kasich and state lawmakers to ban the sale and ownership of dangerous exotic pets.
Dangerous Game: Ohio Exotic Animals. Local authorities in Ohio shot to death many of the 48 bears, lions, wolves and other animals who got loose from a private menagerie in Zanesville.
CFLs, Compact Fluorescents and Why You Should Use Them
Vanderlande Industries Crossorter inspired by Cradle to Cradle (C2C)
Vanderlande Industries' CROSSORTER provides a highly flexible solution to handle parcel and postal products up to 1500 x 800 mm, including odd-shaped items with an availability of 99.9%.
• Parcels from 100 mm up to 1500 mm with a single sorter
• up to 18,000 carriers per hour
• Parts are extremely easy to change within 5 minutes
• 99% of all materials used are easy to dismantle and to recycle
• 90% of the materials used are environment-friendly
• 80% more energy-efficient than conventional crossbelt sorters
The Prince of Wales visits an environmental project in Kuyasa Township
The Prince of Wales visits an environmental project in Kuyasa Township where residents are encouraged to add solar panels to their roofs to provide green electricity for their homes.
Using Compact Flourescent Bulbs at Your Home
The Prince of Wales gives a keynote environmental speech at Cape Town University
The Prince of Wales gives a keynote environmental speech at Cape Town university during Their Royal Highnesses visit to South Africa.
NATURE: Wednesdays on PBS
Climate Change Initiative "Combustible"
97--98% of the most published climate researchers think humans are causing global warming. Another study found 97.4% of publishing climatologists and just under 90% of all earth scientists think significant man made global warming is occurring. Yet, it is the fringe, the global climate change deniers, who often have the loudest voices.
"Combustible" is a web video, created as part of a campaign, for the Global Climate Initiative, an organization that was borne to raise awareness of the fact, that we as human beings, are actually having a negative impact on the global ecology, and we shouldn't wait until it's too late to see this truth, and act. "Combustible" is a web video we created by REALM, from idea through conception. Included in the effort, was our team with Jianchao in Shanghai, as well as our creative partners at Creativegroup, in New York, especially Dan Ricci. Peter Moore Smith wrote the line, at the end. Everyone worked on this project without taking a fee, because all the participants see the importance of this mission.
TEDxManhattanBeach 2011: A Child's Right To Learn by Mike Matthews
Mike Matthews has been an educator for 25 years. He began his career as a teacher. He became a school principal at the tender age of 29, and later became principal of Malibu High School, a school he build from the ground up. In 2006 he helped to start a private company called Extreme Learning, to offer after-school learning programs to California schools that didn't meet state academic standards, serving more than 4,000 students. Mike was chosen by the Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) Board of Trustees as superintendent of schools for the Manhattan Beach School District in 2010. He holds a BA and MA from Stanford University and a doctorate in education from Pepperdine University.
Why Cradle To Cradle Is Important
How You Can Protect the Environment
Opportunity International in Tanzania
Young Ambassadors for Opportunity Founding Board Chari, Liesel Pritzker, shows Opportunity's work in Tanzania.
CSR Minute: MGive App Coordinates Mobile Donations; Xcel Makes 10,000th Home Energy Efficiency
mGive, a mobile applications service, has published seven steps to creative holiday giving campaigns that can ensure 100 percent passthrough of all nonprofit donations. Mgive coordinates mobile tools such as the Facebook App, Flash Donation widget, and QR Code creator to make mobile giving more efficient. Noting a 97 percent open rate of text messages, mGive's tips for effective SMS donations include enlisting corporate partners, promoting non-monetary messages, and integrating call-to-action.
Xcel Energy has announced its 10,000th Home Energy Squad visit in Minnesota. In a visit, two Excel energy experts work with a homeowner to choose energy-efficient improvements, which are then made on the spot. Since 2010, the program has saved enough energy through improvements to provide 1,300 homes with electricity and gas for a year.
Economy brings down Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has told the country's president that he will resign after the new budget law currently making its way through parliament is approved.
Though Berlusconi's controversial political career was fraught with allegations of fraud and accusations he paid for sex with an underage teenager, it was his handling of the economy that has ended his 17-year political career.
Curiosity: What's America Worth?
Curiosity continues Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 9PM e/p with What's America Worth?
What To Do With America's Nuclear Waste?
Nuclear power plants generate about one-fifth of U.S. electricity, and don't release the greenhouse gases scientists have linked to climate change. But tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel rods are stranded at the nation's 104 commercial nuclear reactors. They can't be moved because construction of a proposed nuclear waste dump outside Las Vegas has been halted, and the state of Nevada is fighting to make sure it will never be completed. So where else could all that nuclear waste go?
Mediterranean Cyclone! Devastating Floods In Genoa, Italy
Footage of the killer flash floods in Genoa, Italy, and satellite imagery of the freak tropical cyclone in the Mediterranean Sea.
Who Are the One Percent: Greenwald & Schultz Discuss the Koch Brothers and Romney Connection
Mitt Romney claims his economic plan is meant to aid the middle class, not those in the Koch brothers' tax bracket. But how does eliminating an estate tax to do so? Ed Schultz and Robert Greenwald discuss, along with why Brave New Foundation launched WhoAreTheOnePercent.com
TEDxAmsterdam: Human Nature Forecast by Koert van Mensvoort
Design-philosopher Koert van Mensvoort shares his thoughts on the changing boundaries of nature and culture for the TEDxAmsterdam Human Nature Forecast series.
China's Race for Resources
China and the U.S. are neck and neck in energy consumption, but China's energy needs are expected to rapidly grow to almost double America's demand by 2035. Where will all that extra energy for both countries come from?
Across America, People Are Telling Bank of America: Not One More Dollar
From Chicago to NYC, people are telling Bank of America: Not One More Dollar. Not one more dollar for BoA to make coal investments that are poisoning our communities. Not one more dollar for BoA to hand out fat bonuses to execs while laying off American workers. Not one more dollar for BoA to foreclose on Americans' homes.
Greece, Italy, Still Struggling, in Crisis
World markets watched closely Tuesday as Greece and Italy continued to struggle with political crises. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi won a parliament vote but saw his majority evaporate.
Remember The Fifth of November: V for vendetta conning intellectual momments
TEDGlobal 2011: The augmented reality of techno-magic by Marco Tempest
Using sleight-of-hand techniques and charming storytelling, illusionist Marco Tempest brings a jaunty stick figure to life onstage at TEDGlobal.
Varley Announce evR450 Electric Supercar
Australian based company Varley Engineering have announced the evR450 electric super car at the Australia Electric Vehicle Conference in Brisbane. Based entirely on the Michigan USA sourced Superlite SLC kit car, the evR450 is being developed around locally sourced powertrain components from both Tritium and Ultramotive.
Green Overdrive spends a day driving the Mitsubishi i MiEV
In the latest episode of Green Overdrive, Katie Fehrenbacher takes the Mitsubishi all-electric i MiEV out for a full day of driving, running it through its paces on the highway, in the city, parallel parking, looking for a charge, and packing it with people.
Handwriting Communication System Using An Ultrasound Tactile Display
A research group at Nagoya Institute of Technology is developing a real time communication system based on handwriting. This system reproduces the writing movement of the tip of a pen on another persons palm, by applying a stimulus using an array of ultrasound speakers. This has been designed to enable people to enjoy the process of writing, and have the act of writing itself communicated to another person
Asian elephant gives birth after 700-day pregnancy
Forty days overdue! An Asian elephant gives birth after a 700-day pregnancy at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, UK
Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog: A Match Made in Ele-Heaven
Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog; best friends at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. With no human encouragement, Tarra adopted this stray dog on her own several years ago, and the two are now inseparable. Their inspiring, "odd couple" story was recently featured on CBS News and in "Bark" magazine.
Footnote: Since Bella and Tarra's recent television exposure, a lot of people have asked how the spinal injury happened. When Bella was found in a shallow ravine in the elephant habitat, unable to walk, she was rushed to the veterinary hospital. X-rays revealed that she had sustained a spinal injury. The absence of deep tissue damage and puncture wounds led the veterinarian to surmise that Bella's spinal injury was the result of an awkward twist, most likely sustained when she was running and jumping over something. The good news is that Bella has recovered from her injury.
Chile's Hudson volcano erupts and forces residents to flee
Huge columns of steam and ash poured into the sky as Chile's Hudson Volcano erupted at three different craters.
Move Your Money on November 5th #OccupyWallStreet
On Nov. 5th it's time to make Wall Street pay! Move your money from one of the big banks who helped crash our economy to a community bank or credit union.
Go to www.moveyourmoneypledge.org to find out how!
Green is the theme at Wall Street protest #OccupyWallStreet
After six weeks of protest at a park in New York's financial district, hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters are using eco-friendly systems to keep their temporary home clean and environmentally friendly. Their green initiatives include composting, energy-producing bicycles and a gray water treatment system to sustain them as they rail against the wealthiest one percent of Americans.
Thai floods close in on Bangkok Center
Thailand hopes sandbags will save Bangkok
Thailand stacks giant sandbags, hoping to prevent floodwater from entering the heart of the Bangkok.
Occupy the Koch Brothers at the Guerrilla Drive-In #OccupyWallStreet
What: The Koch's main front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), is hosting a gala at the Washington Convention Center in DC. Outside hundreds (maybe even thousands) of members of the 99% will gather for a Guerrilla Drive-In to save the American Dream. We'll Have popcorn, good food, and a great time while we watch fun videos that expose the Koch Brothers in colossal fashion.
Where: The parking lot at 7th St. and L St. Entrance at 1025 7th st. NW (1 block south of Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro)
When: Friday Nov. 4th at 6pm. Movies will start at 7pm.
Read more at: Occupy the Koch Brothers
Tar Sands Action Phase One: Sit-In at The White House #noKXL
Part one of the Tar Sands Action was a two week long sit-in at the White House in which 1,253 people were arrested.
For more information visit http://www.tarsandsaction.org/
Robert Redford: Join the November 6 Keystone XL Protest #noKXL, See You at The White House
Join at the White House on November 6 for a major protest agains the Keystone XL pipeline
http://tarsandsaction.org
Bill McKibben Call for November 6th 2011: See You at The White House #noKXL
Join is Nov. 6 for an incredible, historic event at the White House. Now is the time to stop the pipeline.
Sign up at www.tarsandsaction.org/sign-up
Surfer Narrowly Misses Being Hit By Humpback Whale
Apogee Stadium for the University of North Texas Mean Green Football Team
Apogee Stadium is the new home to the University of North Texas Mean Green Football Team. Groundbreaking occurred in November 2009. Construction was completed in August 2011.
The stadium was designed by award winning architecture firm HKS, Inc. The company is also known for other venues including Cowboys Stadium, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and the American Airlines Center. The venue will seek Platinum LEED Certification, making it the first Collegiate Stadium to achieve the award.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Asks President Barck Obama to Halt Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline: See You at the White House
Julia Louis-Dreyfus speaks out against the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline and urges people to join the action to surround the White House on November 6, 2011.
For more information, visit www.tarsandsaction.org
World Population: Where it's thick and where it's thin by The Big Picture
The growing population of the world, now estimated to be over 7 billion, marks a global milestone and presents obvious challenges for the planet. There are extremely densely populated cities and sparsely populated countries. China is the most populous country with India following closely behind. This post brings together some disparate illustrations of our world as it grows, including scenes from Mong Kok district in Hong Kong, which has the highest population density in the world, with 130,000 per one square kilometer. In Mongolia, the world's least densely populated country, 2.7 million people are spread across an area three times the size of France. Then there's Out Skerries, a tiny outcropping of rocks off the east coast of Scotland where the population is just 65. And doing what he can to contribute to that 7 billion global milestone is Ziona, the head of a religious sect called "Chana." He has 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren. The world is an interesting place. -- Paula Nelson (41 photos total)
Photos: World Population: Where it's thick and where it's thin
Climate Change: IPCC Draft Report Reveals More Extreme Weather Events In The Future
A recent draft report from the world's leading climate scientists reveals that the Earth will experience more severe weather events in the future due to climate change. While this news may not come as a surprise to many, this particular analysis of climate change marks a new chapter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Previously, most of the IPCC's work focused on analyzing the more subtle effects of climate change, namely average temperatures over time. But the forthcoming IPCC report centers more on intense floods, droughts, heat waves, and monsoons, which could be the source of considerable social and economic costs in the 21st century.
Source: The9Billion
TEDxHarkerSchool 2011: The World Is Your Oyster by Sramana Mitra
Sramana Mitra is an entrepreneur and author, having written a series of books as well as founded and sold multiple companies. She is now working on her 1 Million by 1 Million (1M/1M) initiative to help 1 million entrepreneurs around the world build businesses worth $1 million.
G20 Backs Euro-bailout
President Obama and other G20 leaders threw their weight behind Europe's financial bailout plan as they wrapped up their two-day summit in France.
TEDxHarkerSchool 2011: An Opportunity to Revitalize America by Kevin Surace
As the chairman and CEO of Serious Energy, and a holder of thirteen patents, Kevin Surace is an expert in the fields of both entrepreneurship and energy conservation.
UNESCO could declare Bethlehem World Heritage Site
The Green City Index by Siemens
How green are cities today and what can they do to improve their environmental footprint? The Green City Index - a unique research series conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation with Siemens, provides answers.
Greece denied debt euthanasia to save Euro
The political and financial turbulence in Greece has shaped discussion at the G20 summit, which has just wrapped up in Cannes. EU leaders voiced strong determination to defend the euro and agreed on bolstering the International Monetary Fund's resources.
Philippe Cousteau, Jr. Introduces Expo 2012 in Yeosu, Korea
Explorer, social entrepreneur and environmental advocate Philippe Cousteau, Jr. introduces us to Expo 2012 in Yeosu, Korea where the world will come together to learn about the issues facing our oceans.
2011 Smarter Cities Challenge Highlights
Hungry Planet
UN launches year-long celebration of vital role of world's forests
Recognizing the role that forests play in everything from mitigating climate change to providing wood, medicines and livelihoods for people worldwide, the United Nations today kicked off a year-long celebration to raise awareness of the value of this important resource.
"Forests for People" is the main theme of the International Year of Forests , which was launched at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York attended by world leaders, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and forest experts.
Hungry Planet Episode: ex-Barcelona striker Hristo Stoichkov Tackles Hunger
TEDxABQ 2011: Can a Dress Made from Trash Change how you see?
Nancy Judd creates evocative couture sculptures from trash. Each of her garments has a mission—to inspire people to look at garbage with new eyes. Her work is designed to motivate people to reduce their carbon footprint in all parts of their lives — in a fun and positive way.
Greek PM Scraps Referendum on Debt Plan
Greece's prime minister abandoned his explosive plan to put a European rescue deal to popular vote and opened emergency talks Thursday with his opponents.
G20 Eurodrama: Greece Drops Rescue Vote
As world leaders convene in France for the annual G20 summit, plans to end Europe's financial crisis have been riding the tumultulous waves of Greek politics.
18 Years of Fighting Chevron: Stop Chevron and Defend the Amazon
Cofán elder Marina Aguinda Lucitante shares a song to mark the 18th anniversary of the monumental legal struggle against Chevron for massive environmental crimes in the Amazon rainforest. Join the Cause to Stop Chevron and Defend the Amazon
Chevron in Ecuador: A Defining Moment
Oil giant Chevron ordered to pay $9 billion for pollution cleanup in Ecuador! After nearly 18 years of legal battles, the communities in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest devastated by oil giant Chevron's reckless pump-and-dump oil operations have scored a landmark victory. Chevron has been ordered to pay $9.5 billion for cleanup of widespread contamination, and potable water and healthcare facilities for affected communities.
But Chevron has vowed to fight "until hell freezes over." Stop Chevron: Defend the Amazon
Elephants join clean-up effort after floods in Tha...
Ordos Museum in Ordos, Inner Mongolia by MAD Archi...
China Comic & Animation Museum (CCAM) in Hangzhou,...
Queen Rania on The Employment Challenge at the Wor...
Coen van Oostrom OVG on stage with Bill Clinton at...
Can 'Occupy Wall Street' Survive? #OccupyWallStree...
The Euro Plus Pact by Herman van Rompuy at The Lis...
How to replace a 60 Watt Light Bulb with Philips 1...
Fuel Efficient Vehicles Dominate 2011 Los Angeles ...
TEDxSanJoaquin 2011: Breathing New Air into Tradit...
Occupy Protesters Start March to DC #OccupyWallStr...
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Popula...
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Best S...
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Winner...
PV Installations in China to Reach US Level in 201...
Obama Weighs in On SolarWorld and Chinese Competit...
A Million Solar Rooftops Not Just California Dream...
Sharp Unveils Record Breaking Solar Cell: Efficien...
Occupy DC targets Economy and Militarism #OccupyWa...
UNEP FI 2011 Global Roundtable: Earth Summit 2012:...
UNEP FI 2011 Global Roundtable: Climate Ambition: ...
Sailing General Cargo TRES HOMBRES inbound La Coru...
How the Occupy Protests Can Save the Economy: An O...
Thought Control: Move Objects With Your Mind! (Vir...
The American Broiler Belt: The Rise of Industrial-...
By the Numbers: The Day of 7 Billion by Time Magaz...
Newt Gingrich: 'I Don't Know Whether Global Warmin...
The Principles for Sustainable Insurance - UNEP FI...
Evolve will reveal two exceptional electric motorc...
KTM Freeride E, Austrian Electric Motocross Reveal...
Volvo C30 Electric: Electrical Architecture and El...
David Crosby and Graham Nash Perform for "Occupy" ...
My Number One Commitment by His Holiness the Dalai...
The 2011 Milan International Motorcycle Show (EICM...
Honda gears up to electrify winter with hybrid sno...
Nyamuragira volcano in Congo continues to spectacu...
The Seahorse Sculpture by Hazel Bryce: The Most Co...
Climate change election debate, Auckland, New zeal...
"Water Vapor, the Hydrological Cycle, and Climate ...
Presentation on Cradle to Cradle at Tarkett sponso...
James Dyson Awards 2011 Runner-Up: KwickScreen Pro...
James Dyson Awards 2011 Winner: Edward Linnacre's ...
Gruesome Photos Show The Massive Scale Of The Shar...
Wintertime Droughts Increase Due To Climate Change...
TEDxOkanaganCollege 2011: Engineered Wood Products...
Nissan accelerating rollout of EV quick charge net...
Milk & toffee are bringing communities together in...
Fairtrade Towns: Energizing your community to chan...
Oxfam calls on the New Forests Company to investig... | 016, according to the report The India Solar Market: Strategy, Players, and Opportunities from GTM Research and BRIDGE TO INDIA.
At year-end 2010, India had 54 MW of installed grid-connected solar. However, recent feed-in tariff allocations from the NSM and the state of Gujarat's Solar Policy promise to increase that installed capacity six-fold to approximately 365 MW by the end of 2011 and, furthermore, to over 1.1 GW by 2012.
EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge 2011 Winner: Light Bulb Finder
The Light Bulb Finder mobile app makes it easy to switch from incandescent to energy-efficient light bulbs. It empowers users to make informed decisions based on their lighting needs and the financial and environmental impact of their choices. Using the app, the typical American home can cut their annual electricity bill by over $120 and environmental impact by 1,360 lbs. CO2.
The Light Bulb Finder app is intuitive and easy to use. Based on simple inputs about home fixtures and incandescent bulb styles, the app instantly recommends energy-efficient bulbs with the right fit, appearance and quality. For each recommendation, the app displays a bulb image, specifications, energy and dollar savings, and CO2 emissions reductions. Users can purchase energy-saving bulbs through the app or at local retailers.
The app addresses a growing need in the U.S. as new efficiency standards for light bulbs start phasing in from January 2012. The new standards will save the U.S. more than $12.5 billion annually when fully implemented in 2020 and eliminate the need for 33 large power plants, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Light Bulb Finder app uses zip code level data from EPA's eGRID database to automatically calculate the CO2 emissions reduction for each incandescent bulb a user chooses to replace.
Light Bulb Finder is available as a free download on iPhone, iPad touch, iPod and Android smartphones. Visit the app store on your mobile device and search for "Light Bulb Finder." Learn more at www.lightbulbfinder.net
Report from Oakland Occupation #OccupyWallStreet
China: 1 TW of Wind Energy by 2050
China could have 1 TW of wind power by 2050 with wind supplying 17% of electricity production, compared to today's 1%, according to the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute (NDRC ERI) with support from the International Energy Agency (IEA). ERI's roadmap sees capacity of 200 GW of wind power by 2020 and 400 GW by 2030.
The most recent resource assessments suggest a potential of more than 2.3 TW, equivalent to two and a half times China's total current installed generation capacity from all energy sources. China became the world's largest wind market in 2010, surpassing the United States with nearly 19 GW installed in that year,
PV Installations in China to Reach US Level in 2011
According to the recently released Solarbuzz China Deal Tracker report, the non-residential PV project pipeline in China grew to 16 GW at the end of October. Solarbuzz has identified 1,104 non-residential projects in China that are installed, being installed, or in development. Projects in the pipeline are located in 29 Chinese provinces. Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia are the leading provinces in megawatt terms, followed by Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Tibet and Anhui. These 10 provinces represent 86% of the total pipeline.
According to the report, 195 projects, with a total capacity of over 1.8 GW, will be installed within 2011. That installed capacity in China will closely match the installed capacity in the US this year. Stimulated by the Qinghai 930 program as well as unified national feed-in tariff (FIT) policy, 54% of the capacity in megawatt terms will be located in the northwest region.
Source: Solar Thermal Magazine
Sharks in Trouble
This year has seen major shark conservation actions taken around the world, but more action is needed by many more countries. This video, a companion to a report by the Pew Environment Group, illustrates how these animals are threatened by commercial fisheries throughout the world's oceans. It points out that, according to global reports, shark populations have declined by as much as 70 to 80 percent. Scientists estimate that 30 percent of all shark species are threatened or near-threatened with extinction.
Obama Weighs in On SolarWorld and Chinese Competition
Kevin McCloud drives the Delta E4 at Silverstone
A Million Solar Rooftops Not Just California Dreaming
According to a new report from Environment California Research & Policy Center, the state is on track to hit its goal of installing 3 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2016, having installed 1 gigawatts of rooftop solar panels already.
California's Million Solar Roofs Initiative has certainly given the state an economic boost - its solar market has been growing by around 40% a year. Even if it should only continue growing at 25% a year, the 3 gigawatt goal will still be reached by the end of 2016.
Source: Renewable Energy News
Sharp Unveils Record Breaking Solar Cell: Efficiency of 36.9%
Sharp Corporation has announced it has achieved the world's highest non-concentrator solar cell conversion efficiency of 36.9% using a three-layered, triple-junction compound solar cell.
New 5.7 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Eastern Turkey
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck near the Turkish city of Van on Wednesday. This is the second major quake to hit the region in less than a month's time. The collapse of two hotels and nearly two dozen other buildings have furthered questions asking why a comprehensive assessment of the region's structural safety had not been made in the weeks following the October 23 quake and more than 1400 aftershocks.
Super Storm Batters Alaska's Coast
One of the most powerful storms to hit western Alaska in nearly 40 years battered coastal communities Wednesday with snow and hurricane-force winds, forcing some residents to seek higher ground as it knocked out power and ripped up roofs.
Financing a Green Energy Future in North America
This video is a recording of a panel on "Financing a Green Energy Future in North America," which took place at the 2011 UNEP FI Global Roundtable on Sustainable Finance in Washington D.C.
Green energy is rapidly becoming a focus for both investment and cutting-edge technological innovation. It is assumed that assuring a competitive edge in green energy can contribute to delivering sustained economic growth and job creation. The US and Canada directed significant resources into boosting green energy as part of their stimulus packages in 2009, yet in the current conditions green energy is still not cost-effective. The question remains as to whether and how can financial institutions incentivise and accelerate the deployment of green energy in North America?
Speakers in the video are John C. S. Anderson, Senior Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance Origination at John Hancock; Robert Nicholson, Managing Director of Power and Utilities Finance of the Royal Bank of Canada; Mike Carr, Senior Counsel to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate; and Ethan Zindler, Head of Policy Analysis of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Football legends play for Libya
Some of football's most famous names were back in action in the UAE to raise cash and awareness for children affected by the recent conflict in Libya. Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo and Pavel Nedved were just some of the players to lend their support.
Occupy DC targets Economy and Militarism #OccupyWallStreet
David Swanson: Occupy Freedom Plaza DC plans its own "super committee" meetings on the economy
UNEP FI 2011 Global Roundtable: Earth Summit 2012: Financing the Rio vision session
This video is a recording of a panel on "Earth Summit 2012: Financing the Rio vision," which took place at the 2011 UNEP FI Global Roundtable on Sustainable Finance in Washington D.C.
"Rio+20" or the Earth Summit 2012 comes 20 years from the first Earth Summit of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. The sustainable development agenda has moved significantly during this time but environmentally we are arguably in a worse situation than in 1992. This session debates on what forward thinking financial institutions should seek out of Rio+20 as far environmental, social, and governance issues are concerned.
Speakers in the video are Paul Abberley, CEO of Aviva Investors London; Wolfgang Engshuber, Chair of the UN PRI; Roberto Dumas Damas, Head of Environmental and Social Risk of Banco Itau BBA; Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. The moderator was David Runnalls, Outgoing President and Distinguished Fellow of IISD.
UNEP FI 2011 Global Roundtable: Climate Ambition: Geo-politics, competitiveness and growth
This video is a recording of a panel on "Climate Ambition: Geo-politics, competitiveness and growth," which took place at the 2011 UNEP FI Global Roundtable on Sustainable Finance in Washington D.C.
"Policy action on climate change" versus "jobs and competitiveness" -- Is the issue as simple as this? What are the views of financial institutions, and why should developed countries -- precisely on the grounds of jobs and economic competitiveness -- take note of the ambition in some of the emerging economies of the world.
Speakers in the video are Jennifer Blanke, Director of the Global Centre for Competitiveness, World Economic Forum; McKie Campbell, Republican Staff Director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Ana Unruh Cohen, Deputy Staff Director of the Democratic Staff Natural Resource Committee; and Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres. The moderator is Eric Roston, Sustainability Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Concept One: Croatian Electric Sports Car
A young Croatian inventor and winner of the Vidi e-novation Award, Mate Rimac and the Rimac automobile company have created an electric sports car which had its premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The car speeds up in 2.8 seconds from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour. Top speed is limited to 305 kilometers per hour and in a moderate drive, the maximum range is 600 kilometers.
The Global Clean Energy Race
The clean energy race is on. The investment and finance data presented in the Pew Clean Energy Program's new report, Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race? show that countries are jockeying for a leadership position in this growing and increasingly competitive sector. Countries with clear, consistent and constructive clean energy policies are powering investment forward.
Beautiful Views of Planet Earth
Sailing General Cargo TRES HOMBRES inbound La Coruna
How the Occupy Protests Can Save the Economy: An Odd Todd Cartoon #OccupyWallStreet
Odd Todd has a scheme to turn the Occupy Wall Street protests into a force that could save the American economy. But be sure to read the fine print.
Thought Control: Move Objects With Your Mind! (Virtually)
The BodyWave, a new iPod-size device that straps onto your arm, allows the mind to control objects on a computer screen
The American Broiler Belt: The Rise of Industrial-Scale Chicken Production
The broiler industry has changed drastically over the last 50 years and now produces more than 8 billion birds -- an increase of more than 1400% -- despite the loss of 98% of broiler operations over the last 50 years. The typical broiler chicken comes from a facility that produces more than 605,000 birds a year. The majority of these massive operations -- millions of chickens and the billions of pounds of waste they produce -- are concentrated in a handful of states that comprise the American Broiler Belt.
Don't Put America's Arctic Ocean at Risk
America's Arctic Ocean is central to the diet and culture of indigenous communities who have practiced a subsistence way of life for thousands of years. But with pressure mounting to expand offshore oil development, the nation's northernmost ocean—and the communities that depend on it—are at risk.
By the Numbers: The Day of 7 Billion by Time Magazine
Million-Dollar Reef Sharks
A new study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science concludes that sharks are worth far more alive and swimming. In Palau, the Pacific Island nation that declared its waters a sanctuary free of shark fishing, sharks provide a lynchpin for the tourism industry.
The Lightning GT testing at GoodWood (L-EV X02)
Asteroid Anxiety? Astronomers Say Not to Worry
Asteroid 2005YU55 approaches and is the subject of research, not the script of Hollywood. Space rock the size of an aircraft carrier stays between Earth and the Moon's orbit.
Newt Gingrich: 'I Don't Know Whether Global Warming Is Occurring'
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says his ad with Nancy Pelosi on global warming for Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection was the "dumbest single thing I've done in years," then says, "I actually don't know whether global warming is occurring."
The Principles for Sustainable Insurance - UNEP FI 2011 Global Roundtable
This video is a recording of a panel on "Changing Risk, Risking Change: The Principles for Sustainable Insurance (UNEP FI PSI)," which took place at the 2011 UNEP FI Global Roundtable on Sustainable Finance in Washington D.C.
ESG issues span a wide range of business risks, and are interrelated with the conventional insurance industry terms of 'emerging risks' and 'reputation risks'. Amid a changing risk landscape and the increasing diversity and interconnectedness of risks, an insurance industry systematically managing ESG issues in its insurance and investment activities can contribute more significantly to reducing long-term and systemic risks, and to achieving a resource efficient, low carbon, inclusive and sustainable global economy. Discover why and how the UNEP FI PSI Initiative can make this happen.
Speakers in the video are Charles Anderson, CEO of Sovereign, Kathy Bardswick; President & CEO of The Co-operators Group; Anthony Kuczinski, President & CEO of Munich Re America; Rowan Douglas, CEO, Global Analytics of Willis Re and Chairman of Willis Research Network; Roger Sevigny, former President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and New Hampshire Commissioner. The moderator is Astrid Zwick, Head, Corporate Responsibility of Munich Re.
Powerful Storm Heads Toward Coastal Alaska
Western Alaska residents braced for an unusual Bering Sea storm headed toward the coast, packing hurricane-force winds and churning giant waves.
Evolve will reveal two exceptional electric motorcycles at EICMA 2011: The LightCycle and The Lithium
Zero Motorcycles 2012 Model Line at EICMA 2011
Zero Motorcycles introduced its model line for 2012 which will be available in Europe from February. Up to 114 miles of range. 308,000 mile battery life. No powertrain maintenance on the Zero S, Zero DS and Zero XU. Easy to own... exhilarating to ride.
KTM Freeride E, Austrian Electric Motocross Revealed at EICMA 2011
Belumbury Dany: The New Italian Electric City Car
Volvo C30 Electric: Electrical Architecture and Electrical Safety
Feathered Labour for Philippines Rice Farmers
Rice farmers in the Philippines have found an ally as they try to protect their crops from pests and the effects of global warming. Farmers use ducks to help keep the water in their paddies fresh, and to get rid of weeds and other pests that could damage their crops.
Duck manure also works as a good organic fertiliser, which helps to decrease the amount of money farmers spend on harmful pesticides. Integrated rice-duck farming was first introduced to the country in the early 1990s. However, it has not been easy to convince more farmers to let go of their dependence on chemicals.
David Crosby and Graham Nash Perform for "Occupy" #OccupyWallStreet
Activist musicians David Crosby and Graham Nash delivered a touch of Woodstock to Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park on Tuesday. They led a chant of "No More War!" during a 20-minute acoustic performance.
The Audi A2 Electric Car Concept
My Number One Commitment by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about his number one commitment to promote basic human values in this clip from the interfaith dialogue "Building Bridges - Religious Leaders in Conversation with the Dalai Lama"
Stand Ducati With 1199 Panigale at EICMA 2011
Stand BMW at EICMA 2011
Stand Piaggio Aprilia at Eicma 2011
The 2011 Milan International Motorcycle Show (EICMA) Will Be Electric
There are forecasts that the electric scooter and motorcycle market will see significant growth over the next few years and the 2011 edition of the Milan International Motorcycle show (EICMA) 10-13 November looks set to bear witness to those predictions. Of course, we've seen some awesome reveals there before, but it seems as though this year the floodgates will truly open up.
Source: Autoblog Green
Volvo C30 Electric - Testing
Brammo Enertia Plus For Hong Kong Police
Hong Kong Chooses Brammo Electric Motorcycles to Replace Petrol Motorcycles in Police and Other Government Departments. The Brammo Enertia Plus motorcycles will be driven year-round by engineers in the Water Supplies Department to reach district service locations, while the Hong Kong Police Force will employ the 2012 Enertia Plus LE to conduct traffic duties in various city districts. The Enertia Plus LE (Law Enforcement) is based on the Brammo Enertia Plus civilian model, but is equipped with special features that tailor it for authority patrol use.
Source: Brammo Enertia Plus to replace government gassers in Hong Kong
Nissan designers discuss PIVO 3 EV concept
Francois Bancon, deputy divisional GM for product strategy, and Taro Ueda, design director of product design, discuss the innovative electric vehicle concept ahead of its appearance at the Tokyo Motor Show.
Honda gears up to electrify winter with hybrid snowblower
Honda introduced its first all-new hybrid snowblower model for the U.S. market and two new snowblower series to join the company's powerful lineup. The hybrid configuration of the all-new Honda HS1336i snowblower combines a gasoline engine that simultaneously drives the model's auger/fan apparatus (clearing and throwing the snow) and charges the battery, with the electric motors (two in parallel) controlling the track drive forward propulsion. These motors also function as a generator during deceleration of the snowblower – serving to regenerate electrical energy.
Equipped with the Honda iGX390 four-stroke overhead valve (OHV) horizontal shaft engine, the HS1336i snowblower operation results in lower fuel consumption, lower emissions, lower noise and reduced vibration as compared to a conventional snowblower. In addition, the iGX390 incorporates an improved inner muffler construction and has the best ignition timing for its class. Because the iGX390 is equipped with an auto choke (a choke that automatically controls the flow of air to the carburetor), starting operation is simplified, regardless of the atmospheric or engine temperature.
Nyamuragira volcano in Congo continues to spectacularly spew lava and ash
Africa's most active volcano Nyamuragira erupts, spewing ash and lava threatening nearby residents.
Floods hinder life in Thai capital
Floodwaters enter Bangkok's centre making it difficult for residents to access food and prompting concerns of flood-borne illness.
"Paying it forward" for clean water
The creator of The Million Dollar Homepage and co-founder of the social network Bebo have come up with a novel fundraising campaign that taps the network effect of social media to support charity: water.
Australia imposes carbon taxes
Australia's parliament pushes through landmark carbon tax legislation to curb emissions and boost next round of climate talks in December.
Floods continue in Thailand
Residents in the Thai capital grapple with food shortages and transportation problems after the worst floods in 50 years.
The Seahorse Sculpture by Hazel Bryce: The Most Complex Papier-mache Sculpture in the World
Hazel Bryce spent six years pushing the boundaries of Papier-mâché to create the most complex large scale Papier-mâché sculpture in the world. The Seahorse poses questions to all of us. As one of the many endangered species on our planet Seahorses are tragic victims of human waste and financial gain. In covering junk with the Financial Times newspaper Hazel Bryce has not only created a breath taking sculpture but has recycled a global environmental symbol to raise awareness and challenge the causes and effects of waste and greed.
The shreds of newspaper that form the Seahorse's surface provide clues and strange snippets of society and news that led up to the millennium. With the passing of time subtle sepia tones are now emerging through this deliberate and muddled mish-mâché print mix. Hazel Bryce refers to The Seahorse as a slow and inevitable clock but to what time or event is this clock ticking to?
The Seahorse is bursting with conceptual values but it does not rely on them. It stands alone as a modern Masterpiece without the need for verbal props or a connection to status. Perhaps this is why it has provoked such a strong reaction from those who control the UK state art establishment?
The Sea Horse can be admired and wondered at simply for its execution and aesthetic beauty. It smashes down the boundaries that separate craft and fine art; it stretches out to reach to and beyond many styles. Its complex anatomy has a realistic, organic yet spacey concern for symmetry with ambiguous body functions and an uncertain gender. The wide grin lends an almost animated expression to this modern yet classic-fantastic surreal sculpture that really has to be seen to be believed.
Deep Trouble for the Deep Sea
The deep sea is home to an estimated 10 million species, most of which have yet to be scientifically-documented. While this marine biodiversity rivals the world's richest tropical rainforests, these fragile deep-sea habitats, which have taken centuries to grow, are being destroyed by trawlers dragging enormous weighted nets that, in a single pass, scrape the ocean floor habitat clean.
Climate change election debate, Auckland, New zealand
New Zealand's per capita emissions are the 11th highest globally and we have a moral responsibility to do our fair share to look out for our neighbours, especially those in the Pacific.
It's only weeks to go until the General Elections and there is a real risk that issues like climate change will simply not get the attention they deserve. To remedy this, Oxfam is hosted two open public debates on New Zealand's response to climate change and a debate on foreign affairs. With representatives from National, Labour, Greens and the Maori Parties, this was a fantastic opportunity to actively engage with the policy makers. This is a clip from the climate change debate held in Auckland on November 2, at the University of Auckland's School of Business.
"Water Vapor, the Hydrological Cycle, and Climate Change"
Something in the Air: Climate Change, Science and Policy - Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. "Water Vapor, the Hydrological Cycle, and Climate Change" by Isaac M. Held, Senior Research Scientist, head of Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Group, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA (Princeton, NJ); Lecturer with rank of Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University
Presentation on Cradle to Cradle at Tarkett sponsored seminar on sustainability
Presentation by Peter Okmark of Tarkett on LEED and the new Cradle 2 Cradle certification scheme. Given at Tarkett sponsored seminar: Sustainability and the Environment in the real world. Held at RIBA, London.
Nissan Global Headquarter's Zero Emission Vision
Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama harnesses engineering innovation to reduce its impact on the environment. It recently installed a new solar power and storage battery system for electric vehicles, allowing you to charge up your car at the building whatever the weather. But how is this possible? Nissan Technology Magazine TV's Erika Yokoyama reports on how Nissan is cutting down its own carbon footprint and taking our world one step further towards zero emission mobility.
Nissan Technology Magazine (NTM), through reports and interviews with experts both within Nissan and around the world, will take a look at these advances, and attempt to paint a picture of what the "Future of Mobility" might look like.
James Dyson Awards 2011 Runner-Up: KwickScreen Product Development
KwickScreen is a portable, retractable, rooom divider which provides isoaltion or privacy solutions in hospitals when required. They have a very small footprint for easy storage and use and are simple to transport and clean. KwickScreens enable hospitals, which are often stretched for resources, to make the best use of space offering the the flexibility to change a room's layout. The product greatly helps in the fight against health care acquired infections as well as with mixed sex accommodation and general privacy and dignity problems. KwickScreens can be printed, which adds colour and interest to wards and can be used to display important messages to staff and visitors. KwickScreen has applications beyond healthcare, in schools, universities, offices and exhibitions where openplan areas need to be divided up in a fast and flexible manner.
James Dyson Awards 2011 Runner-Up: BlindSpot
Blindspot is a smart white cane that helps visually handicapped people to take on an active role in socializing and venture into places that they do not dared to explore previously. It informs them of a friend or family member nearby and helps to actively meet them. The location of their friends can be abstracted from popular geographical-based social apps such as Foursquare and communicated through the Bluetooth earpiece connected to the cane. Having known that a friend is nearby, they can choose to call them with the earpiece or be guided towards their friends. Their friend's location can be guided by a tactile GPS navigator on the cane handle. It is a horizontally rolling ball that points to the exact direction to walk. Additionally, an in-built ultrasonic sensor helps detect hanging objects and gives forewarning of ground obstacles to the user. This allows visually handicapped people to confidently travel out of their comfort zone and be aware of people they know being around them.
James Dyson Awards 2011 Winner: Edward Linnacre's AirDrop Irrigation
The Airdrop irrigation concept is a response to poor agricultural conditions in periods of severe drought. Extensive research into droughts revealed an increase in soil evaporation and trans-evaporation (plant and soil) due to the increasing temperatures. Airdrop Irrigation works to provide a solution to this problem. Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops by an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation. A turbine intake drives air underground through a network of piping that rapidly cools the air to the temperature of the soil where it reaches 100% humidity and produces water. The water is then stored in an underground tank and pumped through to the roots of crops via sub surface drip irrigation hosing. The Airdrop system also includes an LCD screen that displays tank water levels, pressure strength, solar battery life and system health.
Walmart Green Student Challenge
David Cheesewright announces the Walmart Green Student Challenge.
Canada's Boreal Forest Gaining Ground
The International Boreal Conservation Campaign, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, supports conservation of old-growth forests and wilderness. The campaign works closely with Canadian and international environmental organizations, corporations and aboriginal First Nations to find common ground around the Canadian Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, a visionary plan to protect and sustain this globally important ecosystem over time.
Gruesome Photos Show The Massive Scale Of The Shark Finning Trade
New images from a fishing port in Taiwan underline the threat to sharks around the world. Fishermen kill up to 73 million sharks annually in order to satisfy the demand for shark fin soup. While the scale of the trade in Taiwan is massive, globally it is just the fourth largest fisher of sharks, after Indonesia, India and Spain.
Africa's Most Active Volcano Nyamuragira Erupts
Africa's most active volcano has sent a spectacular display of lava and bright orange smoke and ash into the night sky in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wintertime Droughts Increase Due To Climate Change
According to recent research, an increase in wintertime droughts in the Mediterranean is partly down to human-caused climate change
Over the last 20 years, 10 of the driest winters have taken place in the Mediterranean region that stretches from Gibraltar to the Middle East. As the region accumulates most of its precipitation during the wintertime, an increased dryness during this season is particularly worrying. According to scientist, this emerging trend may have a significant impact on water resources and food security in the future.
Source: Green Prophet
TEDxOkanaganCollege 2011: Engineered Wood Products - The Sustainable Solution by Bill Downing
Bill Downing has seen first hand how manufacturing sustainable products has an international demand. This presentation looks at the current and future role of engineered wood products as a sustainable alternative in traditional concrete and steel applications.
Bill Downing is the President of Structurlam Products in Penticton, BC. Structurlam is a manufacturer of glue-laminated columns and beams, and a premier fabricator of heavy timber commercial structures. Prior to joining Structurlam, Mr. Downing was the CEO of BC Wood Specialties Group, an industry association of value-added wood product manufacturers in British Columbia.
He has also held various senior positions with PCI Geomatics Ltd., one of the world's largest suppliers of geomatics software, including VP Sales and Marketing, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of a Netherlands-based subsidiary. Bill grew up Kootenay region of British Columbia and began his career there as a forester for Wynndel Box and Lumber Co. in Creston. Mr. Downing has a degree in forestry from the University of British Columbia, an MBA from the University of Washington and is a Registered Professional Forester.
Nissan accelerating rollout of EV quick charge network in Europe
Nissan is accelerating plans for a European-wide Quick Charge (QC) network for electric vehicles by giving 400 new quick charging stations free of charge to EV charging operators. Strategically located, these new points will boost existing networks and give EV customers greater freedom and flexibility by effectively extending the range of their car.
By recharging batteries in a fraction of the time usually needed this radical step will help drive more customers towards electric vehicles such as the Nissan LEAF. The advanced lithium ion batteries in Nissan LEAF can be recharged from 0 to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes using a quick charger.
Source: Electric Vehicle News
Will Barack Obama win the 2012 Election?
TEDxDanubia 2011: Responsibility by Ernő Duda
Ernő Duda is a serial entrepreneur having started 16 companies in the past 20 years, all in different industries. Having a passion for science, he currently runs Solvo Biotechnology, the largest independent life sciences company in Hungary and also a global leader in its own field. He greatly enjoys teaching and has several decades of teaching experience in a number of fields from business to biotechnology.
He is an associate professor at the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Szeged and a regular speaker at international conferences. He has held numerous positions in different charity organizations and NGO-s and is currently the president of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association and the VP of the Hungarian Skeptic Society. He has a strong "work hard-play hard" attitude to life and enjoys long discussions by a bottle of wine on subjects like the future of human evolution or the convergence of technologies.
Milk & toffee are bringing communities together in Sri Lanka
Sukitha has worked at the dairy co-op in Muruganwr, south Vavuniya, since 2009. The co-op now has over 300 members, 150 of which deliver milk to the co-op every day. Once Sukitha and her colleagues collect in the milk from the dairy farmers it is sold on to local business and schools. Some of the milk is kept at the co-op to make dairy products such as ghee, toffeee and ice packs.
Sukitha is very keen for the co-op to continue growing and expanding. "I hope that next year the dairy co-op will develop further and we can expand. We want to have a separate building for making and selling the products. If we can increase the production of milk based products we can increase the income of the co-op and it can grow. We can have more members. I would like it to have 500 members. People come to the co-op everyday and ask if they can join. People know now that there are many advantages of being a member of the co-op." says Sukitha
A Fair Story: People Empowerd
A short film which gives everyone the chance to be part of a global story and connect with people around the world to celebrate fair.
100 People: A World Portrait 201 | 7,097 |
Mot<|fim_middle|> by Gambrell, Palmer, Codling and Mazzoni (1996:520). Because the study followed an action research model, an intervention strategy was implemented which allowed the researcher to measure effects and to reflect on teaching practices and reading methodology. | ivation is an important element in reading success. There is a concern that many learners are not choosing to read on their own and that independent reading opportunities during the school day appear to be diminishing. Research suggests that if children do not read on their own, they may lose some reading ability. The Department of Education conducts systemic evaluation tests to determine the literacy and numeracy levels of Grade 3 and Grade 6 learners in South Africa. These tests reveal that a high proportion of learners are scoring below the required level for the grade. There are a number of reasons why the learners are not performing at the required level for the grade but educators are determined to improve learners? reading and comprehension skills. Many educators therefore ask, ?How do I get my learners to read?? Not all learners are reluctant to read. Some learners do show an eagerness to read and write and they enjoy reading. These engaged readers are intrinsically motivated and value reading. In contrast, disengaged readers are inert and inactive and avoid reading. Often extrinsic measures such as punishment or rewards would coerce these learners to read. The aim of this study is to determine which teaching practices would motivate learners in a grade 6 class to read. Key theories which underpin this study are social constructivism, social learning theory and socio-cultural learning theory. Qualitative data and quantitative data were collected from interviews and questionnaires. The research tool which was used to measure the learners? self concepts as readers and the value of reading is referred to as the Motivation to Read Profile (MRP). The MRP was devised | 316 |
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Quantum Dots are tiny nanocrystals of a semiconducting material with diameter range of 2-10 nanometers. The optical and electronic properties of a quantum dot is different as compared to the larger particles. The light that these dots emit completely depends on the size of the dots. This<|fim_middle|>, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 countries globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.
13.3 LG Display Co., Ltd.
13.6 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. | type of technology is used in various LCDs and smartphone screens. Surging demand for optimized devices with better performance and resolutions is one of the major driver for the growth of the market of quantum dots.
The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global quantum dots market based on product, technology, material and applications. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall quantum dots market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America | 106 |
Biomatters Ltd renews bioinformatics support at the University of Auckland
<< Invitrogen supports biotech teaching and research ViaLactia Biosciences Chief Scientist appointed as Adjunct Professor >>
Biomatters Ltd has become a partner in the Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology and will support bioinformatics research and teaching through the donation of licenses for its award winning Geneious Pro software. This new partnership continues the longstanding association of Biomatters<|fim_middle|> software for scientific solutions in the areas of disease research, human health and environmental issues. It has won numerous awards for its innovative solutions in bioinformatics and computational biology.
<< News < Invitrogen supports biotech teaching and research | ViaLactia Biosciences Chief Scientist appointed as Adjunct Professor > | Ltd with the University of Auckland and its Bioinformatics Institute. The company develops unique and easy-to-use | 20 |
Several game modes are available on Tabletopia<|fim_middle|> and your opponent will not see it.
Online mode is the multiplayer that lets you play with other users online.
Games in this mode can appear in the Find & Play section and be shared with people outside Tabletopia via browser. They have a wider range of options than the Solo and Hotseat modes. Read Starting Games and Inviting Players for more details about this mode. | , including Online, Solo and Hotseat modes. This article features description of each mode and its features.
Solo mode available for games that feature a 1-player setup and can be played alone.
In this mode the in-game chat, turn-based modes, lobby, and some features like Pause, Finish Game, etc. are all disabled.
To play a game solo, Click Play Solo on the game's page. The appropriate setup will start launching immediately.
Hotseat mode lets you play any game in a multiplayer mode but on the same desktop. Games with hidden information, like a hand of cards, are also supported.
Click Play Hotseat on the game's page.
Choose a setup for your number of players, if available. The game will start loading immediately.
While in game, click End Turn to pass the turn to the next player. Note that your hand will now be hidden | 177 |
A cluttered office can negatively impact the motivation and productivity of employees. Clutter also means that confidential information may be exposed – which is exactly what information thieves hope for.
In fact, a tidy office can actually boost employee efficiency. According to interior design company oka.com, people make better decisions in a tidy space – and that can save the 15-20% of the annual budget that can be lost when it's untidy.
Here are 15 tips and tricks to declutter office space and better protect confidential information.
Clear the desk. Place only the items that are needed for daily work within arm's reach (<|fim_middle|>; one out' rule. For example, if you get a new hard drive, dispose of the old one securely. The workplace should not stockpile hard drives, but have all legacy hard drives securely destroyed. | the phone, keyboard and monitor, light, and other essential work supplies).
Keep personal items organised with a place for coats, and a locked drawer or cupboard for personal items.
Declutter by picking up every item in the work area – and asking, does it have a purpose? Anything that doesn't should be thrown out, taken home, or securely disposed of. Not sure? Don't waste time deciding. Have a 'not sure' box, and go back to it later.
Organise desk drawers by importance – items used most should go into the closest drawers.
Have an efficient workflow for paper... so paper comes in on the left, gets processed, and goes out on the right (filed in a locked drawer or filing cabinet or securely disposed of).
Organise digital information too, with logical and labelled folders and when necessary, in password protected files. File all emails using a simple filing system: 'reply', 'waiting', 'archive'.
Review and cull filed documents. According to the US based National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), individuals never use 80% of papers they file.
Stop using sticky notes (they're messy and expose information). Use calendar reminders and a password manager instead.
Digitise paper documents if possible. Put paper into locked consoles for secure destruction – not into open recycling or waste bins.
Embed processes that standardise tidiness. These processes could include partnering with a document destruction company that installs locked consoles for unwanted paperwork and provides regular secure removal and destruction service.
Create a comprehensive Document Management process so documents are systematically identified, filed and securely disposed of based on data protection laws and compliance requirements.
Use the 'one in | 335 |
The Porsche 928 is a luxury grand tourer produced between 1978 and 1995 and was the marques' first V8 car. The intention of the car was to replace the Porsche 911, the car Porsche is most famous for. Porsche believed the 928 would appeal to a much wider audience because of its refinement and comfort, rather<|fim_middle|> Ernst Fuhrmann – saved the 911 when he noticed the sales figures weren't as high as expected. He decided that the models should be sold side by side, because both cars had a very different driving experience. Although the 928 never became the success Fuhrmann envisioned, it was in production for over 18 years. | than the compactness and quirkiness of the 911.
Ernst Fuhrmann and Ferdinand Porsche were among a group of executives that considered to add a more luxurious car to their line-up. When Fuhrmann noticed the sales figures of the Porsche 911 slowly tumbling down, he concluded the model was approaching the end of its economic life cycle. He put pressure on Ferdinand to start making decisions in regards to the Porsche 928.
The car was revealed at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show and was immediately praised for its comfort and power. However, the sales began slowly, mainly because the base prices were much higher than the previous range-topping 911 model. Purists did not liked the front-engine, water-cooled design of the car.
Back then, that group of executives had no idea of how iconic their 911 would become in the upcoming years. Peter Schutz – replacement of managing director | 196 |
According to the current scenario, US is all set to be the largest oil and gas producer across the world, whereas overtakes as the biggest oil consumer. It seems that International energy markets are ready for "major upheaval". The report is generated from the International Energy Agency's annual energy<|fim_middle|>0, there will be 30% increment in the worldwide global energy demand and it will be driven by higher consumption in India. Moreover, in the coming future the importance of renewable energy source will rise. IEA is tracking the energy reports of almost 29 countries stated that US - once reliant on imports has become the "undisputed global oil and gas leader". By 2025, there will be 80% rise in global oil supply by US due to increase in shale. Hence, this will keep the prices low and US will be the net exporter of oil along with gas by the late 2020s. According to the US Energy Information Administration, it is estimated that US will be the world's top petroleum and natural gas producer in 2012. Dr Fatih Birol, IEA executive director stated about the emergence of the US "represents a major upheaval for international market dynamics." He also added, "US oil and gas output is projected to surpass that of any other country in history a remarkable ability to unlock new resources cost-effectively". According to the agency, approximately 40% of the demand will be met by the renewable sources like solar and wind. In China, the government is focussing on renewable energy which resulted in increase by an average of 2% annually. . | forecast. As reports suggest that by the year 204 | 13 |
Boulder County / Safety & Law / Sheriff / Law Enforcement / Canine (K-9) Unit / Breeds
Canine (K-9) Breeds
The following breeds of dogs are used by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office Canine (K-9) Unit:
Bloodhounds
The Belgian Malinois was developed as a variety of the Belgian Shepherd Dog about one hundred years ago. The Belgian Shepherd Dog breed was developed out of a desire to standardize the characteristics of the local herding dogs of Belgium. The Malinois variety was named after the town of Malinois where, in 1898, a club was founded to promote the improvement of the shorthaired Belgian Shepherd Dog. The club emphasized the preservation of the Malinois' character and intelligence, which made him a valuable utility dog. The breed was developed not only for beauty but also for talent as a working dog. Although excelling as a herding dog, the Malinois, along with the other Belgian breeds, has<|fim_middle|> Generally, Bloodhounds are very good-natured and love children, but they are not popular as pets because of their slobber and the amount of exercise they require.
Canine (K-9) Unit
Emergency Services Information
Hazardous Device Response Team
Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.)
Current Canines (K-9)
Retired Canines (K-9)
Public Demonstrations
To schedule a public demonstration, contact:
Sergeant Josh Bonafede
Sheriff's Headquarters
www.bouldersheriff.org
H.Q. Lobby Hours:
08:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. M-F | a very protective nature and high prey drive. They are tenacious and have a drive that never tires. Those characteristics are what make the Malinois so desirable as a Search and Rescue, Police or Military dog.
In Germany, in 1891, a group of enthusiasts formed the Phylax Society with the aim of fostering and standardizing native German breeds. The society was short-lived and in 1894 it disbanded, but it had sown the seeds from which the German Shepherd was to emerge. The qualities that made the German Shepherd such an exceptional sheepdog made it an excellent choice for other governmental uses. During World War I, it was used as a messenger dog, rescue dog, sentry dog, and personal guard dog. Servicemen from the United States, United Kingdom, and the British Commonwealth saw first hand the dog's bravery, intelligence, and steadfastness, and many stories were taken back home. Not surprisingly, a number of dogs were acquired by servicemen and transported home with them.
The first impression of a good German Shepherd Dog is that of a strong, agile, well-muscled animal, alert and full of life. It is well balanced, with harmonious development of the forequarter and hindquarter. The dog is longer than it is tall, deep-bodied, and presents an outline of smooth curves rather than angles. It looks substantial and not spindly, giving the impression, both at rest and in motion, of muscular fitness and nimbleness. The ideal dog is stamped with a look of quality and nobility – difficult to define, but unmistakable when present.
The Dutch Shepherd, native to Holland, was originally a sheepdog, and was also used by Dutch farmers as a general-purpose farm dog. The Dutch Shepherd is a medium-sized, well-proportioned, well-muscled dog, with a powerful, well-balanced structure, an intelligent expression and a lively temperament. He is alert, devoted to his owner, obedient, and eager to please and oblige. He is a good guardian, is very faithful and reliable, undemanding, with plenty of stamina, is vigilant, active and is gifted with a typical shepherd temperament. He may be somewhat reserved and should be well socialized. The breed is very similar in coat types and physical characteristics, except for color, to the Belgian Shepherd Dog.
The name "Bloodhound" is derived from the expression "blooded hound", meaning a hound of pure breeding. Large, long-eared hounds of notable scenting ability were found and written about in most of the Mediterranean countries before the Christian era. The Bloodhound developed distinctive strains early in his history as a breed. The most famous of these were the St. Hubert hounds, established in the 7th Century A.D. in Ardennes, France. It was not until the 16th Century that the Bloodhound was used extensively to hunt man, especially poachers and sheep thieves in England.
Their "testimony" was regarded so highly that they were given the legal right to follow the track anywhere, including into homes. The large amount of slobber they produce contributes to their amazing scenting ability. | 649 |
We are a couple which created a beautiful place in the middle of nature.its a silent spot and away from touristic activities .You can hear your heart beat.here you are in tune with all the elements far away from civilisation.You really have to like being with yourself and being open for change in your life.
It's a place which needs a lot of helping hands and we love creative people, who can live without TV and also not always in need of using computer or mobil phones .The place is 450 meters above the sea overlooking the ocean on the Canary Island Lanzarote.
The beach is 10 min away with the car or a beautiful walk 40 min to one of the most amazing beaches of the island.surfing,sailing,swimming,climbing,walking or just being in nature is fantastic.For people who like to be in a place which is autarg.We have our own solar system and wind Energie.We are working on it to be a eco retreat center.
We are a non profit center.Everthing what we earn with Ayurveda regeneration weeks,meditation seminars,Art and music workshops individuell coaching prozesses,healing sessions,wolframs individuell tarot sessions or different healing massages goes into the center to make it more beautiful and to keep it alive .It's a place for transformation and healing.
We do love to be creative ,making music,paint and meditate .For us very important:it's a Alkohol and drug free house .We have a sweet little very friendly dog called Sunny who runs around and loves to be hugged and be walked .
ALKOHOL AND DRUG FREE PLACE !!!
To Injoy being a part of the family .
Open for change and new expierences.
Sometimes of the year we need dog and house sitter (technical knowledge and drivers licence essential)can be a couple.
When we dont have guests you can have a Guest Room with bathroom .When we have guests there is a smaller room (Hoch Bett) available with own bathroom.
Walking, swimming,caves or volcanos to visit ,Art Galerie,concerts and beaches.Every saturday we all go together(no pressure) to the Art market for meeting friends and making new ones.The bus station is in the next village.You can easily hitchhike,walk 30 min.or when we go shopping or going into the next village you can get a lift from us.Weekends are off(only if there is still work to be done or we have guests ,there are other free days)for volonteers and for us as a host.So we all have space for ourselves.And we all need it at this intensiv place like ours.No food available on free days (no cooking )Some volunteers explore the island, go to Graciosa or Fuerteventura when they are free and stay there over night.
Gratitude and thankfulness are the words that better describes my feelings for Maya & Wolfram! I had the privilege to spent 3 months at their Nirvana's place (that's a real paradise on earth, like 5 stars accomodation in a stunning position, on top of a cliff and under a volcano), and I'm always felt very welcomed and fulfilled by their… read more attentions. I was arrived just for walking the dog (Sunny my love!!), help in kitchen and cleaning in the house and I go away with a lot of new experiences. They was very lovely to let me enough free to organize my daily works and (something that I've really loved) they helps me to discover new abilities and talent in me, giving me the possibilities to paint a lot (walls and roofs, but also furnitures and signboard, and also gardening and pruning, house sitting and various experiences in problem solving ;-) ) and this was a real big gift! I've received for sure more that expected! So, I'm feeling that I've found more than two friends, but my real swiss-german family in Canary Islands (and also spending Christmas time with you, guys, was so beautiful and warming heart!!)! Of course, as usually happens in families, not all it's always easy in the cooliving, but dialogue and respect are the basis of a very long and good relation and friendship, that I'm sure will continues in future, also out of workaway. Surely, we will meet again and our reciprocate sharing will follows!
I really love you, guys! Thank you so much!! You are in my heart! See you, my dear friends!!
Luisa you have been an excellent help in our center.Thank you so much for your unlimited patience.It was not always easy with us as a couple.
It's an Art to live and work together.
I think you where very patient with everything....and we all tried our best.Thanks for that....learning from each other and a lot of respect and understanding for one… read more and another..
You have been a big help in the kitchen,cleaning rooms when the yoga group was here.You have been super with our guests,very friendly and helpful.was a lovely week we spent together in the kitchen..
Than you offered us to house sitting when we went on holiday. Taking care for the house and the dog was an expierence during that heavy rain. You really managed everything so good.thank you for that.living without hot water and light for a few days.....you really did a good job in a difficult situation....afterwards your love for the garden was amazing...how you fall in love with our peper trees...cutting in such a lovely way all the branches...you deffenetly passed all tests...painting our new room in the wind on the roof just great...no words I can say...we love the room now...The apartment you finished painting in colours...just wow...your Art work was brilliant..especially the big "Nirvana" bord.i really love it....many thanks to you...and all the little bathroom signs...very lovely..what more can I say.our evenening talks I really enjoyed very much and being on the beach together.
So it's almost half a month ago I left your place-- when I look back I really had a good time at your place. I know you had a hard time the weeks and months before I came but I hope I could balance this out at least a bit.
I am glad you have been so personal and caring to me, that's much more than just working and getting a place to sleep. You… read more already did a great job at your Nirvana with helping people.
"All that glitters is not gold." I think that's important for you. You both do really well, also by just appreciating what is. I really did. I miss the vulcanic rocks holding in my hands; and Hans-Ruedis<|fim_middle|>entrubel verzichten kann, wird mit Maya, Wolfram und der Huendin Sunny, die auch eine ganz Spezielle ist, eine wunderbare Zeit verbringen.
I miss you all so much and am so grateful for the time I had with you and the new friendships we have. Thank you for helping me with my Spanish! You are such kind and warm people. I really enjoyed our many interesting chats about everything from veganism to world politics!
Thank you again for having me there and being so kind. I will DEFINITELY BE COMING BACK!
Give Sunny a big cuddle for me - I miss her so much! and tell everyone at coffee that I will see them again next year.
I wish you the best of luck for the coming year with all the challenges that lie ahead and I will see you again soon to help you with some of them! Next time we will make more music.
I am really grateful I could stay in this beautiful and magic place, whole my experience here was very strong.
Maya and Wolfram provided to me the space and opportunity to choose what I like to do and organize my work by myself so I could develop my creativity. They helped me to see my potential in a new light and the love and appreciation what… read more they gave me is just stunning!
I have gone through many internal processes, my mind calm down, I cured som parts of myself, I got to know myself more and I learned a lot.
I loved walking with Sunny, singing and dancing "with" the wind, betwen clouds rolling all around me. It is like in the end of the world, on top of the cliffs with the breathtaking view. You can express yourself the way you feel, you can scream, cry, laugh...whatever. Nobody can see of hear you.
Thank you for everything! I hope to see you agaiun soon.
It was truly a most inspiring experience staying with Wolfram and Maya. They have poured in so much love and energy into their beautiful home and space. I feel very grateful to have had an opportunity to be here with them and only wished I could have stayed longer. I look forward to returning. Both Maya and Wolfram have many rich life experiences,… read more interests and creative talents. A blessing for me to come and stay. Lots of love!
The best way I can describe my experience at this amazing place with such wonderful people is to say, I really, really didn't want to leave.
I will always treasure the memories, thank you so much Maya and Wolfram, hope we meet again sometime soon. | figs!
My stay at Mayas and Wolframs place was fantastic. They are 2 lovable people, who spoil you as a workawayer, share their lives and social connections and explain and show you a lot about the island.
Among other things, I was a house and dog sitter for a while, so I was alone in her home. This is really a very special place, away from tourism,… read more fantastically located, just an experience. The island itself is probably one of the most beautiful ones of the Canary Islands.
If you want to spend some time there, you should be responsible, be able to do something with yourself and not just come "to find yourself".
Anyone who is close to nature, can enjoy it and can do without the hustle and bustle of their life will spend a wonderful time with Maya, Wolfram, and last but not least their dog Sunny, who is also a very special person.
Mein Aufenthalt bei Maya und Wolfram war fantastisch. Es sind 2 liebenswerte Menschen, die dich alsworkawayer verwoehnen, an ihrem Leben und ihren sozialen Verbindungen teilhaben lassen und dir viel ueber die Insel erklaeren und zeigen koennen.
Ich war unter anderem eine zeitlang fuer sie Haus- und Hundesitter, war also alleine in ihrem Heim. Dies ist wirklich ein ganz spezieller Ort, fern ab vom Tourismus, traumhaft gelegen, einfach ein Erlebnis. Die Insel selbst ist wohl eine der schoensten unter den Kanaren.
Wollt ihr eine Zeit dort verbringen, so solltet ihr verantwortungsvoll sein, in der Lage sein etwas mit euch selbst anzufangen und nicht nur kommen "um euch selbst zu finden".
Wer naturverbunden ist, sie geniest und auf Mensch | 386 |
Designed for close-air support
This is not your typical military battle. No weapons will be fired, and no troops deployed. This is a budget battle.
In an effort to trim spending, the Air Force is planning to retire hundreds of Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, better known as the "Warthog," a move that will save the Air Force more than $3.7 billion by 2020. It is all part of a congressional mandate which aims to cut $50 billion from the Air Force budget over the next five years, just a small part of the more than $500 billion in planned cuts to the Pentagon budget over the next 10 years.
Designed solely for close-air support of ground forces, the A-10 was built to attack tanks, armored vehicles, and other ground targets with limited air defenses. Critics of the Warthog cancellation say it is a militarily misguided plan, one which ditches an effective, combat-proven plane just to save money for the far more expensive and unproven F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close-air support of ground forces. And perhaps a shift from the A-10 may signal an increasing reluctance for ground operations and toward rapid-response strategic strikes.
Take a look at the A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthog through the years.
Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Greg L. Davis
A-10 Thunderbolt in flight
Here we see an A-10 Thunderbolt in flight in the 1970s. The Warthog's first flight was on May 10, 1972, and it was officially introduced in March 1977. Though slow, the A-10 became known as a highly maneuverable, accurate weapons platform that is the bane of enemy ground forces.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo
Warthogs in flight
During a training exercise over Razorback Range at Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center in Arkansas on June 4, 2012, Lt. Col. Brian Burger fires off a flare while banking into a high-angle firing position.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Ben Bloker
A-10 in Yugoslavia
Here, an A-10 Thunderbolt II takes off on a mission against targets in Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War in late 1999.
The A-10 and OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs were the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close-air support of ground forces, with a unique tank-stopping nose cannon which fires nearly 4,000 rounds a minute.
The Warthog is simple and effective at its close-air support duties, able to be used against virtually any target on the ground, including tanks and other armored vehicles. General Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force chief of staff, said other aircraft -- F-16s, B-1s, and B-52s -- provide roughly 75 percent of the close-air support in Afghanistan today. "We have a lot of airplanes that can perform that mission and perform it well," he said.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo/SRA JEFFREY ALLEN
A-10 during a refueling mission
Here, Col. Jon Mott of the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 104 Fighter Wing breaks the record for the most documented hours in an A-10 Thunderbolt II during a refueling mission March 30,<|fim_middle|>
52nd Fighter Wing, 81st Fighter Squadron
Warthogs from the 52nd Fighter Wing, 81st Fighter Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany deployed to Aviano Air Base, Italy in the 1990s during the Kosovo War are seen here during a NATO Operation Allied Force mission.
Firepower demonstration at the Nevada Test and Training Range
A pair of A-10 Thunderbolts are seen here during a US Air Force firepower demonstration at the Nevada Test and Training Range on September 14, 2007 near Indian Springs, Nevada.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Maryland Air National Guard 175th Fighter Wing
Two A-10s are seen here, deployed from the Maryland Air National Guard 175th Fighter Wing on June 13, 2003.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force
Budget battle threatens the A-10 Warthog (pictures)
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by Kyle Hyatt | 2013, logging more than 4,570 hours in the A-10.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Melanie Norman
A-10s during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Here, a row of A-10 Thunderbolt IIs wait at the Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq for their missions. These aircraft are part of the 442nd Fighter Wing from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which was deployed to Talli and Kirkuk Air Bases in 2003.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Terry L. Blevins
Close-air support training
The Warthog is know throughout the Air Force as one of the most effective close-air support tools available. Here, an A-10C Thunderbolt II with the 188th Fighter Wing, Arkansas Air National Guard conducts close-air support training November 21, 2013, near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo/Jim Haseltine
A-10s from the 52nd Fighter Wing
Following a refueling during a NATO Operation Allied Force combat mission, two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the 52nd Fighter Wing, 81st Fighter Squadron, Spangdhalem Air Base, Germany, drop away from a refueling tanker.
Updated: January 29, 2014 Caption:James MartinPhoto:US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Greg L. Davis | 370 |
\section{Conclusion and Future Work}
\label{sec:conclu}
In this paper, we presented the realisation of a user-oriented
domain-specific language, named Pantagruel, aimed to ease the
development of entity orchestration applications. The design of
Pantagruel is supported by a thorough analysis of the entity
orchestration domain, bringing out the domain requirements and the
needs of users. In addition, we used the formal methodology for
language development proposed by David Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt}. It
identifies the key concepts in language design and
semantics. Throughout the realisation of Pantagruel, we shown how the
denotational semantics of our language reflects the domain analysis,
expressing the user-oriented concepts of the domain as first class
domains of the semantics. Finally, we hope the example of Pantagruel
serves as a basis to help and motivate language developers to provide
a proper semantic definition of their DSL.
Once the semantics of our language is formally defined, it can be used
both to derive implementations (\ie interpreters, compilers) and to
reason about programs by expressing various program analyses. An
interpreter for Pantagruel has been developed in OCaml; it is a
straightforward mapping of the formal definition. An implementation of
a compiler towards a Java platform has also been developed based on the
semantics, and was used for a demonstration of Pantagruel at a conference~\cite{dreypercom}.
As for future work, we will use the semantics of
Pantagruel to perform static program analysis, such as conflict
detection when rule execution affects the state of the same
entities. To do so, we can leverage Nakata's work on the While
reactive language~\cite{nakatadsl11}. Nakata uses the Coq proof
assistant to perform property verifications on the While language,
based on a denotational-style definition. We are also studying an
approach to allowing end users to express area-specific properties,
describing the intended behavior of their orchestration application,
in a user-friendly paradigm. Because they are most qualified to
determine what area-specific properties should be satisfied by
orchestration applications,
it is essential to provide them with high-level abstractions to make
accessible the description of area-specific properties. To support the
verification of orchestration applications against these properties,
this work will build upon the formal semantics of Pantagruel. Another
interesting direction based on the denotational semantics of
Pantagruel, is to develop tools such as debuggers and profilers, and
to make them accessible to end users.
\vspace{-.25em}
\subsection*{Acknowledgment}
\vspace{-.4em}
The formal definition of a programming language can be intricate and dense. David Schmidt has made landmark contributions on this topic, providing researchers with a practical methodology to formalize a programming language definition without sacrificing underlying mathematical foundations. His approach makes the design of a language definition systematic, rigorous and tasteful. Resulting definitions are easier to understand by implementers, to use for formal reasoning, and to leverage to introduce non-standard semantics. This paper is a testimony to the fact that the appealing nature of David Schmidt's methodology is strong across generations of researchers in programming languages.
\section{Pantagruel in the denotational style}
\label{sec:denstyle}
Defining the semantics of a language
usually relies on one of the following three methodologies:
operational, axiomatic, or denotational~\cite{schmidtintro}.
Denotational semantics focuses on the mathematical relation between
input data and output data, and makes
explicit the domain definition of these data. In our approach, the
structure and characteristics of the data related to the entities are
central to the dynamic
semantics of our language. Furthermore, because the denotational
semantics uses a functional style, a definition can easily be mapped
into an implementation. In fact, we have implemented in the OCaml
language an interpreter based on the semantics of Pantagruel.
Additionally, the functional style of the denotational semantics
enables us to generalize the definition of orchestration rules, from
an entity to a class of entities. Specifically, we leverage
higher-order functions to express the rule-evaluation process as a
pattern that is applied on a set of entities, similar to map-like
functions in higher-order languages. In contrast, an operational
definition would make explicit these generalization steps. We
illustrate this feature
in Section~\ref{sec:orchestration-syntax} with the valuation functions
of rules, events and actions.
\section{Orchestration of networked entities}
\label{sec:domain}
A wide variety of networked entities, both hardware and software, are
populating smart spaces that become prevalent in a growing number of
areas, including supply chain management, building automation,
healthcare, and assisted living. These entities have {\em sensing
capabilities}, enabling to collect data (\eg ambient temperature, or
user presence), and/or {\em actuating capabilities}, enabling to
perform actions (\eg turn on/off an entity, or display a
message). Additionally, they are characterized by {\em attributes}
(\eg a location or a status). Applications need to be developed to
exploit the capabilities provided by these entities. Such applications
determine the actions to be triggered according to sensed data and
values of entity attributes. We refer to such applications as {\em
orchestration applications}. The development of orchestration
applications is challenging, requiring to cope with heterogeneity and
dynamicity of networked entities.
\myparagraph{Heterogeneity} The entities of a smart space are
off-the-shelf software components and devices that use a variety of
communication protocols and rely on intricate distributed systems
technologies. The heterogeneity of these entities and the intricacies
of underlying distributed technologies tend to percolate in the code
of the orchestration logic, cluttering it with low-level details.
To facilitate the development of the orchestration logic, it is
necessary to raise the level of abstraction at which entities are
manipulated. To do so, an abstraction layer between the entity
implementation and the orchestration logic must be defined. We refer
to such a layer as a {\em specification layer}, enabling to describe
entities according to their sensing and actuating capabilities and
their attributes. This layer is coupled with the {\em orchestration
layer}
enabling to write an orchestration
application with respect to the entity descriptions from the
specification layer. Specifically, an orchestration application
consists of a set of rules that specify which actions on entities need
to be performed (the right part of rules) when some data are sensed by
entities (the left part of rules).
\myparagraph{Dynamicity} An application may interact with a changing
set of entities because they may become (1) available after the
application is deployed, (2) unavailable due to malfunction (\eg power
loss), or (3) unreachable due to a network failure. The code of the
orchestration logic should manage these variations at a high level,
abstracting over current entities of a given smart space. To do so, we
define an abstraction for interacting with a set of entities sharing
some capabilities and attributes, regardless of the current entities of
the smart space. We refer to such an abstraction as an {\em
interface}. An interface groups together a set of sensing and
actuating capabilities and attributes to which entity implementations
must conform. Interfaces may be organized hierarchically, enabling
them to inherit capabilities and attributes.
We have built a domain-specific language, named
Pantagruel~\cite{jvlc12, dsl09}, for developing orchestration
applications using the methodology for language development proposed
by Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt}. Pantagruel consists of two language
layers: a specification layer for describing the entity interfaces,
and an orchestration layer for describing the orchestration logic. The
syntax and denotational semantics of both layers are presented in the
following sections. Notably, Pantagruel relies on a pervasive
computing platform, named DiaSuite~\cite{diaspectse}, for dealing with
the variety of underlying, low-level technologies.
\section{The orchestration logic}
\label{sec:dynsem}
In this section, we present an overview of the reactive computation
model of the orchestration layer. We then formalize it by defining its
semantic algebras, its abstract syntax and its valuation functions.
\subsection{A simple reactive computation model}
Pantagruel is a reactive programming language in that a program constantly
interacts with the outside, reacting to \emph{context changes} that
are observed by changes occurring on the sensed data and the
attributes provided by entities. A program execution therefore
corresponds to an infinite loop. Each iteration is called an
\emph{orchestration step}, where each step consists of executing
actions on entities according to some conditions on the sensed data or
the attributes of these entities. Each orchestration step produces a
new state reflecting the actions performed.
To facilitate reasoning about the orchestration steps of a program,
we assume :
\begin{enumerate}
\item[i)]\emph{Discrete time and atomic execution.} Discrete time is
modeled as clock ticks. Each tick corresponds to an orchestration
step, where all the rules are evaluated within a tick. Invoked
actions are executed until completion. In doing so, an orchestration
step is executed with respect to a logical cycle, abstracting over
time as well as implementation of the actuating capabilities of
entities.
\item[ii)]\emph{Noninterfering parallelism.} Parallelism assumes that
all the rules whose conditions are satisfied at a given
orchestration step, are executed with the same state, making this
execution simultaneous. Furthermore, we assume a noninterfering
parallelism, as defined by Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt} (Chapter~5):
two rules are executed independently of each other within an
orchestration step, producing two disjoint, partial states. At the
end of the execution, states are joined into a final state without
deleting each other's effects.
Checking conflicting states that would occur in interfering
parallelism is left for another paper.
\end{enumerate}
\subsection{Semantic algebras}
\label{sec:dynalgebras}
\paragraph{Interface-centric behavior.}
The interface abstraction is used to select entities on which an
action needs to be triggered. Such an abstraction also enables
applications to deal with the disappearance or appearance of new
entities while they are executed. In doing so, dynamicity is taken in
account by our language.
The interface-based selection mechanism is ensured by the use of
entity variables involved in rules. For example, Rule (1) of
Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer} declares an \pre{m} entity variable
of \pre{MotionDetector} interface.
To use interface abstraction in rules, we define the ~\DN{Env-entity}
domain as in Figure~\ref{fig:storestruct}, part~\ref{dom:env-entity}:
it maps the identifier of an entity variable to a reference
\DN{Reference} of an entity. The \DN{Reference} domain is a
disjoint union of an \DN{Interface}, reflecting the interface of an
entity that may match a rule, and of an \DN{Instance},
reflecting the entity on which a rule eventually
applies. Entity variables can only be mapped to current entities after
events and actions are evaluated (we examine this point in
Section~\ref{sec:rule-evaluation}). As a consequence, to evaluate
events in a rule with respect to interface abstraction, we define the
intermediate domain \DO{$\BB$-function} of boolean functions, as
in Figure~\ref{fig:storestruct}, part~\ref{domain:bool}. Specifically,
it needs an environment \DN{Env-entity} to evaluate a boolean
operation. Boolean operators \DO{and$_\rho$} and \DO{or$_\rho$}
are defined accordingly.
Entity variables are inside the scope of a rule; this
makes our language be a block-structured language, as formalized by
Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt}, Chapter~7: a rule is a block, which scope
is represented by the \DN{Env-entity} domain. Our approach is similar
to the \DN{Location}-based semantics (Chapter~3): a reference has the
same role as a location, holding the denotation of variable
identifiers.
However, in contrast to the \DN{Location} domain, the space of values
covered by entity variables in a rule is constant and restricted to
the elements present in the global store of entities, hence the use
of the specific \DN{Reference} domain.
\paragraph{Context change.}
To represent the reactive nature of Pantagruel, we leverage the
context data provided by the entities of a specification,
focusing on \emph{what} data are available at each orchestration step,
in order to abstract over the way these data are acquired.
The events produced by entities, along with their attributes,
represent the runtime state of a Pantagruel program, as defined by the
\DN{Store} domain (part~\ref{dom:stores} of Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}); orchestration steps are enabled by changes in this
state. To express changes due to new events, two stores must be
involved, enabling to compare event values between two iterations of
the reactive loop. We make this dual-store strategy explicit with the
compound domain \DO{DualStore}, illustrated in
Figure~\ref{fig:storestruct}, part~\ref{domain:store} .
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
\begin{SemanticAlgebra}
\vspace{-1em}\DomainTitle{Dual stores}\label{domain:store}
\DomainDefNoOp{$\delta$}{DualStore}{Store \mtimes Store}
\DomainTitle{References and environments of entities}
\label{dom:env-entity}
\DomainDef{$f$}{Reference}{Interface + Instance}
\Where{Interface}{Id \textnormal{\;\preg{and}\ } Instance = Id }
\vspace{.2em}
\DomainDef{$\rho$}{Env-entity}{Id \mto Reference}
\par Operations\par
\OperationDefMath{instantiate}{Store \mto Env-entity \mto \PowerSet{Env-entity}}
{\param{\sigma}\param{\rho}\SetOfMath{\param{i}
((\rho ~i) ~\DO{equals}~ \IN{Interface}{(\sigma~j)\dasub 1})
\mto (\IN{Instance}{j}) \ensuremath{\otherwise} (\rho~i)}{j \in Id}}
\DomainTitle{Boolean functions}
\label{domain:bool}%
\DomainDef{$b_\rho$}{$\BB$-function}{Env-entity \mto Tr}
\par Operations\par
\OperationDef{and$_\rho$}{$\BB$-function \mto $\BB$-function \mto Env-entity \mto Tr}
{\param{b_1}\param{b_2}\param{\rho} $(b_1~\rho) \DO{and} (b_2~\rho)$ \NOTE{same for \DO{or$_\rho$}}}\vspace{-.5em}
\end{SemanticAlgebra}
\caption{Semantic algebras for the orchestration layer}
\label{fig:storestruct}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Definition of the orchestration layer}
\label{sec:orchestration-syntax}
The syntax of the orchestration layer is given in
Figure~\ref{fig:astdyn}. An orchestration program P is given as a
specification S and a set K of rules R, relating events W to action
calls C. We examine the language constructs through the valuation
functions, described in the following sections.
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
\vspace{0pt}\begin{minipage}[t]{.3\textwidth}
\begin{syndom}
\DOMAIN{P}{Program}
\DOMAIN{K}{Rule-block}
\DOMAIN{R}{Rule }
\DOMAIN{W}{Event}
\DOMAIN{C}{Action-call}
\DOMAIN{D}{Declaration}
\DOMAIN{B}{Boolean-expression}
\DOMAIN{F}{Filter}
\DOMAIN{X}{Expression}
\end{syndom}
\end{minipage}\vspace{0pt}
\begin{minipage}[t]{.6\textwidth}
\begin{syndom}
\DOMAIN{I}{Identifier}
\vspace{8.5em}
\end{syndom}
\end{minipage}
\begin{grammar}
\RULE{P}\CASE{\NT S; \NT K}
\RULE{K}\CASE{rules \NT R end}
\RULE{R}\CASE{\NT{R$_1$} ; \NT{R$_2$} \gramor\ when \NT{W} trigger \NT{C} end}
\RULE{W}
\CASE{\NT{W$_1$} or \NT{W$_2$}
\gramor\ \NT{W$_1$} and \NT{W$_2$}
\gramor\ event \NT{I$_e$} from \NT D \NT{(}with \NT F\NT{)$^?$} \NT B
}
\RULE{C}
\CASE{\NT{C$_1$} {\small $\|$} \NT{C$_2$}
\gramor\ \NT{C$_1$} , \NT{C$_2$}
\gramor\ action \NT{I$_a$}\,(\NT{X}) on \NT D \NT{(}with \NT F \NT )$^?$}
\RULE{D}\CASE{\NT{I$_o$} : \NT{I$_c$} \gramor\ \NT{I$_o$}}
\RULE{B}\CASE{value changed \gramor\ value = \NT X}
\RULE{F}\CASE{\NT {I$_p$} = \NT X}
\RULE{X}\CASE{\NT N \gramor\ \NT{I$_o$}. \NT{I$_x$}}
\end{grammar}
\caption{Abstract syntax for the orchestration language}
\label{fig:astdyn}
\end{figure}
\subsubsection{Top-level evaluation : the reactive loop}
The \textbf{P} valuation function of a Pantagruel program is depicted
at the top of Figure~\ref{fig:dynsce}. We represent the reactive loop
as a function from the domain of infinite traces of input stores
($\DN{Store}^\omega$) to its output counterpart ($\DN{Store}^\omega$).
An input store $\sigma^{\pre{i\!n}}$ contains event values pulled from
the outside and captured by the available entities as well as new
entities deployed at runtime.
An output store $\sigma$ results from the evaluation step of a rule
set, as described below. The initial store $\sigma_{0}$ is defined
from the specification and has no preceding store ($\sigma_{-1}$ is
the empty store). This representation using traces conforms to usual
definitions of reactive languages, such as encountered
in~\cite{BenvenisteGSS92, Brogi97modelingcoordination, Kahn74}.
The evaluation of a program is as follows. The \textbf{S} valuation
function first builds a specification, consisting of an interface
environment $e$ and a store $\sigma_0$ containing the initial values
of the entity attributes. They are given as parameters of the rule
valuation function \textbf{K} along with two store snapshots:
$\sigma_{t-1}$ at time $t-1$, and $\sigma_t'$ at time $t$, including
events values pulled from the outside and new entities. These changes
from the external environment are abstracted by the
\DO{update-external} function. The evaluation of \textbf{R} results
in a new store, updating the current store $\sigma_t'$ to produce the
store at $t+1$ with the \DO{update-internal} function (its definition
is not shown here). This function is also in charge of setting back to
the undefined value
all the implicit events that were present in the current store $\sigma_t'$.
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
\FunDecl{P}{Program}{Store$^\omega$\mto Store$^\omega$}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{P}{S; K}
{\param{\Sigma}
\LetMath{\mtup{e, \sigma_0}}{\FC{S}}
\In{\SetOfMath[t \in \NN]{
(\DO{update-internal}~e~(\FC{R}e~\mtup{\sigma_{t-1}, \sigma_{t}'})~\sigma_{t}')}%
{\sigma^{\pre{i\!n}}_t \in \Sigma, \sigma_t' = (\DO{update-external}~\sigma^{\pre{i\!n}}_t~\sigma_t<|fim_middle|>{W}{Event}%
{DualStore \mto Env-entity \mto \DN{$\BB$-function} \mto $($Env-entity \mtimes \DN{$\BB$-function}$)$}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{W}{W$_1$ \kw{and} W$_2$}
{\param{\delta}\param{\rho}\param{b}\\\hspace{2em}
\IndentedFormula{
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_1, b_1} = (\FCI{W}{1}\delta~ \rho~b) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
(\FCI{W}{2}\delta~\rho_1~b_1)}}
\\
\FunDef{W}{W$_1$ \kw{or} W$_2$}
{\param{\delta}\param{\rho}\param{b}\\\hspace{2em}
\IndentedFormula{
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_1, b_1} = (\FCI{W}{1} \delta~ \rho~b) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_2, b_2} = (\FCI{W}{2} \delta~ \rho_1~b)
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \mtup{\rho_2, (\DO{or$_\rho$}~b_1 ~b_2)}}}
\\
\FunDef{W}{\kw{event} I$_e$ \kw{from} D \kw{with} F B}
{\param{\delta}\param{\rho}\param{b}\\\hspace{2em}
\IndentedFormula{\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{v, \rho'} = \FCOMP{D}{D}\rho \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } b_\rho = \param{\rho}\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } (\DO{access}~v~\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ } \\\hspace{2em}\xtab
\IndentedFormula{\xchoice{\IS{Instance}{i_o}}{
\IndentedFormula{\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } x_e = \param{\sigma}(\DO{access-event}\FIDI{I}{e}~i_o~\sigma)
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\\hspace{.25em}
(\DO{and$_\rho$}~(\FC{F}i_o~\delta\dasub 1)~(\DO{and$_\rho$}~(\FC{B}~x_e~\delta)~b) ~\rho)}}
\\\ensuremath{\otherwise}\xchoice{\IS{Interface}{i_f}}{\DO{false}}~\textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ } \hspace{3em}\SEMNOTE{----- ``no entity was found \mto no event is caught''}}
\\ \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \mtup{\rho', b_\rho}}}\\
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{D}{Declaration}
{Env-entity \mto $($Id \mtimes Env-entity$)$}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{D}{I$_v$:I$_f$}{\param{\rho} %
\mtup{\FIDI{I}{v}, (\DO{update}~\FIDI{I}{v}~\IN{Interface}{\FIDI{I}{f}}~\rho)}}
\\
\FunDef{D}{I$_s$}{\param{\rho}\mtup{\FIDI{I}{s},(
\FIDI{I}{s} \in \textnormal{\;\preg{domain}}(\DO{Store})
\to \DO{update}\FIDI{I}{s}~\IN{Instance}{\FIDI{I}{s}}~\rho \ensuremath{\otherwise}
\rho}}\\
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{B}{Boolean-expression}{$($Store \mto Value$)$ \mto DualStore \mto $\BB$-function}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{B}{\kw{value =} X}{
\param{x}\param{\delta}
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } b_\rho = \param{\sigma}\param{\rho}(x~ \sigma) \DO{~eq~} (\FC{X}\sigma~\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\\hspace{2em}\DO{not}(b_\rho~\delta\dasub 1) \DO{~and$_\rho$~} (b_\rho~\delta\dasub 2))}
\\
\FunDef{B}{\kw{value changed}}{\param{x}\param{\delta}\param{\rho} %
((x~\delta\dasub 1) \DO{neq} (x~\delta\dasub 2))}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{F}{Filter}{Id \mto Store \mto $\BB$-function}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{F}{I$_p$ \kw{=} X}{
\param{i_o}\param{\sigma}
\param{\rho}
(\DO{access-attribute}\FIDI{I}{p}~i_o~\sigma)
\DO{~eq~}~(\FC{X}\sigma~\rho)}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{X}{Value}{Store \mto Env-entity \mto Value}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{X}{N}{\param{\sigma}\param{\rho} \FC{N}}\\
\FunDef{X}{I$_v$.I$_x$}{\param{\sigma}\param{\rho}%
\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } (\DO{access}\FIDI{I}{v}~\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ }
\\\hspace{2em}
\xchoice{\IS{Instance}{i_o}}(\IfThen{\FIDI{I}{x} \in \textnormal{\;\preg{domain}}(\DN{Entity-event})}{\DO{access-event} \FIDI{I}{x}~i_o~\sigma \ensuremath{\otherwise} \DO{access-attribute} \FIDI{I}{x}~i_o~\sigma})
\\\hspace{2em}\ensuremath{\otherwise} \xchoice{\IS{Interface}{i_f}}{\DN{Undefinedvalue}}~\textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ }}
\vspace{-1.5em}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\caption{Valuation functions for events}
\label{fig:dynpred}
\end{figure}
\subsubsection{Action evaluation}
\label{sec:action-evaluation}
The semantic equations for the \textbf{C} valuation function are
defined in Figure~\ref{fig:dynact}. \textbf{C} requires an
environment of interfaces, an environment of entities, and a store.
The functionality of \textbf{C} shows that an action produces a pair
of functions: an environment and a function waiting for an environment
to produce a store.
The definition of \textbf{C} mirrors the one of \textbf{W}: similarly
to events, actions can declare variables, which are evaluated by the
\textbf{D} function, enriching the environment given as a parameter
to \textbf{C}. Similarly to \textbf{W}, \textbf{C} depends on an
environment which is completed after the evaluation of all the
combined C actions; the invoked action identified by \FIDI{I}{a}
produces an intermediate evaluation of this statement, waiting for an
environment argument to complete. This intermediate evaluation is
specified by the intermediate domain \DN{Env-entity \mto Store}
(mirroring the \DN{$\BB$-function} domain for events), requiring an
environment to produce an updated store, reflecting the effect of the
\FIDI{I}{a} action. In our language semantics, we abstract over the
implementation details through the action parameter, by making its
actual value corresponds to the value of the produced
effect. Specifically, it corresponds to the value of the implicit
event generated by the invocation of the action. The store is thus
updated by mapping this actual parameter to an event of the name of
the action, as specified by the \textbf{A} function
(Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-valuation-functions}).
When actions are executed in parallel, the final store is built by
joining the partial stores produced by these actions (see
Figure~\ref{fig:storestruct} for the\DO{join}operation). In contrast,
a sequential execution builds the argument of the second action by
cumulating the partial store produced by the first action and the
current store.
Note that this process assumes that the scope of a sequence of actions
is bound to the environment in which the concerned actions apply. In
other words, the order of actions defined sequentially over an entity
variable is preserved only for the actions of the current entity
to which the variable is mapped.
\begin{figure}[htp!]
{\small \FunDecl{C}{\small Action}%
{\! Env-interface \mto Store\! \mto Env-entity \mto $\!($Env-entity \mto Store$)$
\!\mto\! $($Env-entity \!\mtimes\!\! $($Env-entity\! \mto Store$)\!)$}}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{C}{C$_1$ $\|$ C$_2$}{\param{e}\param{\sigma}\param{\rho}\param{f_\sigma}%
\\\hspace{2em}\IndentedFormula{
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_1,
f_{\sigma_1}} = (\FCI{C}{1}e~\sigma~\rho~f_\sigma) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_2,
f_{\sigma_2}} = (\FCI{C}{2}e~\sigma~\rho_1~f_\sigma) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } %
\mtup{\rho_2,
\param{\rho}(f_{\sigma_2}~\rho) \DO{join} (f_{\sigma_1}~\rho)}}}
\\
\FunDef{C}{C$_1$ \kw , C$_2$}{\param{e}\param{\sigma}\param{\rho}\param{f_\sigma}%
\\\hspace{2em}\IndentedFormula{
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_1, f_{\sigma_1}} = (\FCI{C}{1}e~\sigma~\rho~f_\sigma)
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } (\FCI{C}{2}e~\sigma~\rho_1~f_{\sigma_1})}}
\\
\FunDef{C}{\kw{action} I$_a$ \kw ( X \kw ) \kw{on} D \kw{with} F}
{ \param{e}\param{\sigma} \param{\rho} \param{f_\sigma}
\\\hspace{2em}\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{v, \rho'} = (\FCOMP{D}{D}\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\\hspace{2em}\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \sigma_\rho = \param{\rho}\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } (\DO{access}~v~\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ }\\
\hspace{2em}\xtab \IndentedFormula{\xchoice{\IS{Instance}{i_o}}{
\IndentedFormula{\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } a_\rho =
(\DO{access-action}\FIDI{I}{a}~i_o~e~\sigma)
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } f_\sigma' = \param{\rho}(a_\rho~i_o~(\FC{X}\rho~\sigma))~(f_\sigma~\rho) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\IfThen{\FC{F}~i_o~\sigma~\rho}{(f_\sigma'~\rho)\ensuremath{\otherwise}
(f_\sigma~\rho)})}}
\\\ensuremath{\otherwise}\xchoice{\IS{Interface}{i_f}}{f_\sigma~\rho}~ \textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ } \hspace{3em}\SEMNOTE{----- ``no entity was found \mto no store update''}}
\\\hspace{2em} \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \mtup{\rho', \sigma_\rho}}\vspace{-1.5em}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\caption{Valuation functions of actions}
\label{fig:dynact}
\end{figure}
\input{semexample}
\section{Introduction}
The realisation of domain-specific languages (DSLs) contrasts with
that of general-purpose programming languages (GPLs) where generality,
expressivity and power are expected. Instead, a DSL revolves around a
narrow, specific application domain and its users, providing
high-level abstractions and constructs tailored towards this domain
and the needs of users~\cite{conseldsl, martinfowler,
little-languages, annotated}. Thus, much time and effort must be
devoted to the domain analysis and the language design. Methodologies
and tools have been proposed to develop DSLs, covering the complete
development life-cycle, from design~\cite{conselmarlet, dsel} to
implementation~\cite{whenandhow, notablepatterns, tratt08, wangdsl},
including formalisation~\cite{liang96moddensem, davidschmidt}.
If such methodologies are well-known in the programming-language
community, they hardly have an echo in the end-user community yet. As
an illustration, in their state-of-the-art paper about end-user
software engineering, Ko \emph{et. al}~\cite{endusersoftware} address
the challenge of enabling the end user to produce reliable programs
that actually achieve his requirements, by supporting the programming
task with visualization and simulation tools.
However, they do not mention the need for a formal definition of an
end-user language so that the supporting tools be provably consistent
with the language definition.
A first step towards addressing this issue is
to bridge the gap between the domain analysis, taking the requirements
into account, and the design of a language, providing the constructs
to achieve these requirements.
In this paper, we present the formal definition of a domain-specific
language, named Pantagruel~\cite{jvlc12, dsl09}, following the
methodology proposed by David Schmidt for language
development~\cite{davidschmidt}.
This language is dedicated to programming applications that
orchestrate networked entities. It targets end users that are
professionals, in areas such as building management and assisted
living, and leverages networked entities to support daily tasks. For
example, security guards are assisted by an anti-intrusion system that
coordinates motion detectors and surveillance cameras to signal the
presence of an intruder on monitoring screens. For another example, a
range of assistive devices, like time trackers, task prompters, and
motion sensors, are available to support caregivers in assisting
people with disabilities in their daily life. Pantagruel offers a
number of features that address the requirements of the domain of
networked entity orchestration, while making it accessible to users
that do not necessarily have programming skills. Specifically,
Pantagruel provides two language layers, one for specifying interfaces
from which entities are manipulated, and another for orchestrating
entities. The orchestration layer offers high-level operators taking
advantage of the information defined in the specification layer to
discover, select concrete entities, and interact with them via their
interfaces.
This paper gives a definition of Pantagruel in the form of a
denotational semantics, exhibiting the domain-specific features of
this language. In particular, this formal definition makes the key
concepts of the orchestration of networked entities (\ie entity
discovery and interactions) explicit. It also brings out some
traditional programming language concepts (\eg the notion of memory
and loop, or variable assignment), which have been abstracted away
from the developer.
\subsection*{Outline}
The rest of this paper is organized as follows.
Section~\ref{sec:domain} presents the specificities and the key
concepts of the domain of the orchestration of networked
entities. Section~\ref{sec:tour} gives a tour of our DSL, Pantagruel,
illustrated by a working example of a building-automation
application. Section~\ref{sec:denstyle} motivates the use of the
denotational style for our language. Sections~\ref{sec:speclayer}
and~\ref{sec:dynsem} describe the syntax and the denotational
semantics of the specification layer and of the orchestration layer of
Pantagruel, respectively. Conclusion and future work are given in
Section~\ref{sec:conclu}.
\subsection{Applying the semantics to an example}
The static semantics analysis of Rule (1) in the
program example of Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer} is presented
in Figures~\ref{fig:example-semantics-one} and \ref{fig:example-semantics}.
This example demonstrates that the intended behavior of a Pantagruel
program is covered by its semantics. In particular, as illustrated in
Figure~\ref{fig:example-semantics}, the store $\sigma_{R1}$ produced
by the execution of Rule (1), contains two events, reflecting the
execution of the \texttt{switch} action on the \texttt{l10} and
\texttt{l11} lights, located in room \texttt{101}, where the
\texttt{m10} motion detector detected an event from $\sigma_1$ to
$\sigma_2$. Most \textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } constructs for handling \DN{Reference}
elements are skipped in our example, in order to keep the
clarity of the illustration.
\newcommand{\tikzmark}[1]{\tikz[overlay,remember picture] \node (#1) {};}
\tikzset{arrow/.style={to path={ -- (\tikztotarget)},
decoration={markings,mark=at position 1 with {\arrow[scale=1.5,#1]{>}}},
postaction={decorate},
shorten >=0.2pt}}
\newcommand{\DrawArrow}[3][]{%
\tikz[overlay,remember picture] {\draw[->,arrow, thick, #1]
($(.1,.1ex)+(#2.south)$) to ($(#3.north)+(.19,1.4ex)$);}
}
\begin{figure}[htp!]
Let \parbox[t]{.9\textwidth}{%
\begin{tabular}[t]{ll}
D$_0$ &=~ \pre{m:MotionDetector}\\
D$_1$ &=~ \pre{l:Light}\\
B$_0$ &=~ \kw{value =} \pre{true}\\
F$_0$ &=~ \pre{room = m.room}\\
W$_0$ &=~ \kw{event} \pre{detected} \kw{from} D$_0$ B$_0$\\
C$_0$ &=~ \kw{action} \pre{switch(true)} \kw{on} D$_1$ \kw{with} F$_0$\\
\end{tabular}
}
\\and an initial store $\sigma_0 = \FIDp{l10} \mapsto \mtup{\FIDp{Light}, \mtup{[\FIDp{room}\mapsto 101]\DO{empty}, \DO{empty}} ...}$ containing the entities of Figure~\ref{fig:specification-layer}.
Moreover, in this example, we assume that a motion was detected from $\sigma_1$ to $\sigma_2$.
~\vspace{.6em}\\
\FCOMP{R}{\kw{when} W$_0$ \kw{trigger} C$_0$}$e ~ \mtup{\sigma_{1}, \sigma_{2}}$\\
=\IndentedFormula{
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_e, b} =
(\FCI{W}{0})\mtup{\sigma_1, \sigma_2}~\DO{empty}~(\param{\rho}\;true) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_a, a} = (\FCI{C}{0}e~\sigma_2 ~\rho_e ~(\param{\rho}\DO{newstore}))
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } P = \DO{instantiate} ~\sigma_2~\rho_a
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \DO{join$^*$}\SetOfMath{((b~\rho_{inst})\to (a~\rho_{inst})
\ensuremath{\otherwise} newstore)}{\rho_{inst} \in P}}
\vspace{1em}\\
\noindent Where : \vspace{.5em}\\
(1)~~\IndentedFormula{
\FCI{W}{0}\mtup{\sigma_{1}, \sigma_{2}}\DO{empty}~(\param{\rho}\DO{true})\\
= \FCOMP{W}{\kw{event} \pre{detected} \kw{from} D$_0$ B$_0$}
\mtup{\sigma_{1}, \sigma_{2}}\DO{empty}~(\param{\rho}\;true)%
\\
=\IndentedFormula{
\tikzmark{LET1}%
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{v, \rho'} = \IndentedFormula{
\FCOMP{\tikzmark{D}D}{\pre{m:MotionDetector}}\DO{empty} \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\~\\
\tikzmark{vD}\mtup{\FIDp{m},
\underbrace{
(\DO{update}\FIDp{m}~(\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{MotionDetector}})~\DO{empty})}_{\rho' \textnormal{ equals } \callupdate{\FIDp{m}}{\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{MotionDetector}}}{\DO{empty}}}} \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } b_\rho = \param{\rho}~... \left[\begin{array}{@{}l}
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } x_e = \param{\sigma}(
\underbrace{
\DO{access-event}\FIDp{detected}~(\DO{access}~\FIDp{m}~\rho)~\sigma}_{\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ }
\textnormal{this be } \xstr{m.detected}\sigma})
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\~\\
\tikzmark{vLET1}
\DO{and$_\rho$}~(\tikzmark{B}\FCI{B}{0}~x_e~\mtup{\sigma_{1},
\sigma_{2}})~(\param{\rho}\DO{true})~\rho~^{\DO{(note)}}
\end{array}
\right. }\\~\\
\hspace{16.5em}\IndentedFormula{
\tikzmark{vB}\FCOMP{B}{\kw{value =} true}\\
\begin{array}{@{}l@{}}=\\~\\~\\\end{array}\tikzmark{vB1}\left[\begin{array}{@{}l} \textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } b_\rho =
\param{\sigma}\param{\rho}
\underbrace{(x_e~ \sigma)}_{\xstr{m.detected}\sigma}
~\DO{eq}~
\underbrace{(\FCOMP{X}{true}\sigma~\rho)}_{true}
\textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\\DO{not}(b_\rho~\sigma_1) \DO{~and$_\rho$~} (b_\rho~\sigma_2)
\end{array}\right.
\\
= \DO{not}(\xstr{m.detected}\sigma_1)~\DO{and$_\rho$}~(\xstr{m.detected}\sigma_2)
}
\vspace{1em}\\ = \mtup{\underbrace{\callupdate{\FIDp{m}}{\IN{Interface}{\pre{MotionDetector}}}{\DO{empty}}}_{\rho_e},
\underbrace{\DO{not}(\xstr{m.detected}\sigma_1)~\DO{and$_\rho$}~(\xstr{m.detected}\sigma_2)}_{b}}}}
\DrawArrow{D}{vD}
\DrawArrow{B}{vB}
~\\\xnote{(note) no F filter in W$_0$ is
equivalent to the ``\kw{with} true'' filter, so we skipped it here}
\vspace{-2em}
\caption{Semantics applied on Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer}}
\label{fig:example-semantics-one}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
(2)~~\IndentedFormula{
\FCI{C}{0}e~\sigma_2~~\rho_e~(\param{\rho'}\DO{newstore})\\
=\FCOMP{C}{\kw{action} \pre{switch(true)} \kw{on} D$_1$ \kw{with} F$_0$}\\
= \textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{v, \rho'} = \tikzmark{D1}\FCOMP{D}{\pre{l:Light}}\rho_e \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\~\\\hspace{6.5em}\tikzmark{vD1}%
\mtup{\FID{l}, \underbrace{\DO{update}\FIDp{l}~(\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{Light})}~\rho_{e}}
_{\callupdate{\FIDp{l}}{\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{Light}}}{\rho_e}}} \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }
\\
\hspace{4em}\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \sigma_\rho = \param{\rho}~ ... \IndentedFormula{
\left[
\begin{array}{@{}l}
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } a_\rho =
\underbrace{(\DO{access-action}\FIDp{switch}~(access~\FID{l}~\rho)~e~\sigma)}_{
(\param{i_o}\param{x}(\DO{update-event}\FIDp{switch}~i_o~x))(\DO{access}~\FIDp{l}~\rho)
}) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } f_\sigma' = \param{\rho}
\underbrace{(a_\rho~(\DO{access}~\FIDp{l}~\rho)~(\FC{X}\rho~\sigma))~(f_\sigma~\rho)}
\vspace{-.4em}\\{\hspace{5em} }_{[(\DO{access}~\FIDp{l}~\rho) \mapsto \mtup{..., \callupdate{\FID{switch}}{true}{empty}}] \DO{newstore}, \textnormal{and let this be $\sigma_2'$}}
\\
\IfThen{~\tikzmark{F}\FCI{F}{0}~\FID{l}~\sigma_2~\rho}{(f_\sigma'~\rho)\ensuremath{\otherwise} \DO{newstore}}
\end{array}
\right.
\\~\\\hspace{2em}\IndentedFormula{\tikzmark{vF}\FCOMP{F}{\pre{room} \kw{=} \pre{m.room}}(access~\FID{l}~\rho)~\sigma_2~\rho
~\\
\\ \tikzmark{vF1}%
\underbrace{\DO{access-attribute}\FIDp{room}~(\DO{access}~\FID{l}~\rho)~\sigma_2}_{\textnormal{let this be} \xstr{l.room}\rho~\sigma_2}~\DO{eq}~
\IndentedFormula{\tikzmark{X}\FCOMP{X}{\pre{m.room}}\rho~\sigma_2\vspace{1em}\\
\tikzmark{vX}(3) \textnormal{-- see below}}
}}
\vspace{1em}\\= \mtup{
\underbrace{\callupdate{\FIDp{l}}{\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{Light}}}{\rho_e}}_{\rho_a},
\underbrace{\param{\rho}((\xstr{l.room}\rho~\sigma_2) \DO{~eq~} \xdots{(3)}) \to \sigma_2' \ensuremath{\otherwise} \DO{newstore})}_{a}
}}
\vspace{1em}\hspace{2em} \textnormal{where : }\vspace{1em}\\
(3)~~\IndentedFormula{\FCOMP{X}{\pre{m.room}}\rho~\sigma_2\\
= \textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } \DO{access}\FIDp{m}~\rho \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ }
\xchoice{\IN{Instance}{i_o}}{(\DO{access-attribute}\FIDp{room}~i_o~\sigma_2)}
\\\hspace{9.7em}\ensuremath{\otherwise} \xchoice{\IN{Interface}{\FIDp{MotionDetector}}}{\DN{Undefinedvalue}}
}
\DrawArrow{D1}{vD1}
\DrawArrow{F}{vF}
\DrawArrow{vF}{vF1}
\DrawArrow{X}{vX}
\noindent Where : \vspace{.2em}\\
(4)~~\IndentedFormula{\DO{instantiate} ~\sigma_2~\rho_a \\
= \textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } P = \{
\begin{array}[t]{@{}l@{}}
\FIDp{m} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{j},
{\small \textnormal{ with } j \in \{\pre{m10, m20}\},
\textnormal{ and } (\sigma_2~j)\dasub 1 = \FIDp{MotionDetector}}\\
\FIDp{l} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{k},
{\small \textnormal{ with } k \in \{\pre{l10, l11, l20}\},
\textnormal{ and } (\sigma_2~k)\dasub 1 = \FIDp{Light}}\} \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ } \\
\end{array}
\\\DO{join$^*$}\SetOfMath{((b~\rho_{inst})\to (a~\rho_{inst}) \ensuremath{\otherwise} newstore)}{ \rho_{inst}
\in P},
}
\vspace{1em}\\
Now, the $b$ and $a$ functions built in (1) and (2) can be fully evaluated with
\eg :
\\i) \IndentedFormula{P = \{\rho_1, \rho_2, ... \}, \textnormal{ such that }\\\hspace{1em}
\rho_1 = \{\FIDp{m} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{\pre{m10}},
\FIDp{l} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{\pre{l10}}\},\\\hspace{1em}
\rho_2 = \{\FIDp{m} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{\pre{m10}},
\FIDp{l} \mapsto \IN{Instance}{\pre{l11}}\},\emph{etc.}}
\vspace{1em}\\
ii) \IndentedFormula{
\sigma_1 = \IndentedFormula{
\left[\FIDp{m10} \mapsto [\FIDp{room} \mapsto \FIDp{101}][\FIDp{detected} \mapsto \texttt{false}]\DO{empty}\right]
\\ \left[\FIDp{l10} \mapsto [\FIDp{room} \mapsto \FIDp{101}]\DO{empty}\right]\DO{newstore}
\\ \left[\FIDp{l11} \mapsto [\FIDp{room} \mapsto \FIDp{101}]\DO{empty}\right]\DO{newstore}}
\\\sigma_2 = [\FIDp{m10} \mapsto [\FIDp{room} \mapsto \FIDp{101}][\FIDp{detected} \mapsto \texttt{\color{red}{true}}]\DO{empty}]~
... \textnormal{same as } \sigma_1... ] \DO{newstore}
}
~\vspace{.6em}\\As a result, the store $\sigma_{R1}$, resulting from the application of \DN{join}$^*$ equals :
\\$\sigma_{R1} = [$\IndentedFormula{
\FIDp{l10} \mapsto \mtup{\FIDp{Light},\xdots{\DO{entity-attributes}},[\FIDp{switch} \mapsto true]\DO{empty}}][\\
\FIDp{l11} \mapsto \mtup{\FIDp{Light},\xdots{\DO{entity-attributes}},[\FIDp{switch} \mapsto true]\DO{empty}} ]\DO{newstore}
}
\caption{Semantics applied on Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer} (continued (2))}
\label{fig:example-semantics}
\end{figure}
\section{The specification layer}
\label{sec:speclayer}
In this section, we present the specification layer of the Pantagruel
language: its semantic algebras, its abstract syntax and its valuation
functions. Let us first introduce some notations used thereafter.
\subsection{Some notations}
This section presents the notations used to define the specification
layer and the orchestration layer of Pantagruel. We use the following
conventions, inspired by Schmidt's methodology~\cite{davidschmidt}:
~\\
$\begin{array}{l@{\hspace{1em}}l}
\langle a, b \rangle & \textnormal{a tuple of two elements $a$ and $b$} \\
\infunmap{x}{v}{\rho} & x\textnormal{ maps to } v \textnormal{ in } \rho\\
x\dasub i, i\in\NN^* & \textnormal{projection on }i^{th} \textnormal{ element
of tuple } x \textnormal{, where } i \textnormal{ is a non-null integer }\\
\llbracket X \rrbracket & \textnormal{denotation of a
syntactic fragment}\\
T^\omega = \{ t_i \in T \}_{i \in {\mathbb N}} & T^\omega$ is the set of
infinite sequences of elements of set T
$\\T = [ ~ \tau_0, \tau_1, ... ~ ] & T$ is an infinite sequence$\\
\end{array}$
\vspace{1em}~\\
\noindent The last notation is borrowed from ~\cite{BenvenisteGSS92,
Brogi97modelingcoordination, Kahn74}. Following Schmidt's
methodology, we define the semantics of the specification layer of
Pantagruel in three steps : first, the semantic algebras are
specified, representing the semantic domains of the language; second,
the abstract syntax of the language is defined; third, the valuation
functions define the meaning of programs, by mapping the abstract
syntax to the semantic domains.
\subsection{Semantic algebras}
The semantic domains for the specification layer of Pantagruel are
listed in Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}. They show
that the specification layer is mainly understood in terms of
environments mapping identifiers of the language to some value. The
environments are defined in the usual form of a \textit{Map} domain as
illustrated in Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-environments}, where X stands
for the type of the value stored by the environment. For clarity, the
\DN{Errvalue} domain used for ill-typed values has been omitted
from Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}. Let us
examine the domains of the specification layer.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\begin{SemanticAlgebra}
\DomainDef{m}{Map}{Id \mto $($X + Errvalue$)$}
\Where{Errvalue}{Unit}
\par Operations\par
\OperationDef{empty$_m$}{Map}{\param{i}$\IN{Errvalue}{}$}
\OperationDef{access$_m$}{Id \mto Map \mto $($X + Errvalue$)$}{\param{i}\param{m}$m(i)$}\\
\OperationDefMath{update$_m$}{Id \mto X \mto Map \mto Map}{\param{i}\param{x}\param{m}\callupdate{i}{\IN{X}{x}}{m}}
\vspace{-.8em}\end{SemanticAlgebra}
\caption{Generic algebra for the definition of environment domains}
\label{fig:speclayer-environments}
\end{figure}
\paragraph{Interface abstraction.} Interfaces are values from the
\DN{Interface} domain (part~\ref{dom:interfaces} of
Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}). To discriminate between
entities, an interface declares typed attributes stored in the
\DN{Interface-attribute} domain. An interface similarly declares its
sensing capabilities in the \DN{Interface-event} domain. Finally,
actuating capabilities are defined as method signatures, in the
\DN{Interface-action} domain, which maps a method identifier to a
pair: (1) the type of the method parameter and (2) a procedure,
defined by the \DN{Action-struct} domain, to update a store with the
value of an implicit event (see Section~\ref{sec:speclayer-def}).
For conciseness, methods have only one formal parameter. Interfaces
are stored in an \textit{Env-interface} environment
(part~\ref{dom:env-interface} of
Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}) mapping an identifier to
an interface. This environment is constant for a given Pantagruel
program.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\begin{SemanticAlgebra}
\vspace{-.8em}
\DomainTitle{Basic domains : truth values, natural numbers, identifiers, and types (operations omitted)}\label{dom:basic}\vspace{.4em}
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth
\DomainDef{t}{\DN{Type}}{\textnormal{Type-structure}}
\DomainDef{b}{Tr}{$\mathbb{B}$}
\end{minipage}\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
\DomainDef{n}{Nat}{$\mathbb{N}$}
\DomainDef{i}{Id}{\textnormal{Identifier}}
\end{minipage}
\DomainTitle{Values}\label{dom:values}
\DomainDef{x}{Value}{Nat + Tr + Undefinedvalue, \textnormal{\;\preg{where}\ } UndefinedValue = Unit}
\par
\DomainTitle{Interfaces}\label{dom:interfaces}
\DomainDef{f}{Interface}{Interface-attribute \mtimes Interface-event \mtimes Interface-action}
\WhereIndentedFormula{
p \in \DN{Interface-attribute}}{\DN{Id} \mto \DN{Type}\\
s \in \DN{Interface-event} = \DN{Id} \mto \DN{Type}\\
a \in \DN{Interface-action} = \DN{Id} \mto (\DN{Type} \mtimes \DN{Action-struct})\\
u \in \DN{Action-struct} = \DN{Id} \mto \DN{Value} \mto \DN{Store} \mto \DN{Store}
}
\DomainTitle{Environments of interfaces}\label{dom:env-interface}
\DomainDef{e}{Env-interface}{Id \mto Interface}
\vspace{-.8em}
\end{SemanticAlgebra}
\caption{Semantic algebras for the specification layer}
\label{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}
\end{figure}
\paragraph{Dynamic context data.} Entities are the elements that hold
the runtime information of a Pantagruel program. Entities are
explicitly represented in the semantics as named objects from the
\DN{Entity} domain; their implementation conforms to one or more
interfaces. For conciseness, we only define entities referring to a
unique interface. Each entity is identified with its current context
data, \ie its attributes and \emph{events}: they conform to the
attribute declarations and to the sensing capabilities of the entity
interface, respectively. Both context data are defined by the
\DO{Entity-attribute} and the \DO{Entity-event} domains.
The \DN{Store} domain (part~\ref{dom:stores} of
Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras-store}) holds the set of
available entities indexed by their name, corresponding to the store
variables. When new entities are discovered at runtime, new variables
corresponding to the name of these entities are introduced in the
store.
To cumulate the results produced by each rule and, within a rule, by
each action, the \DN{Store} domain further defines the \mita{join}
operation to join two partial stores which are produced either by two rules
or by two actions. The \mita{join} operation is
associative, assuming stores have disjoint
domains, thus suggesting noninterfering parallelism.
As suggested by
Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt} (Chapter 5), \mita{join} combines the
effects of the execution of actions without overwriting them. This is
achieved by an appropriate definition of a \mita{combine} operation,
enabling partial stores to be combined; it is left unspecified here.
The values of the data sensed by entities, their attributes, and the
actual parameter of actions, are specified by the \textit{Value}
domain (part~\ref{dom:values} of
Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras}). The
\textit{Undefinedvalue} domain allows undefined values to be stored.
For simplicity, only natural numbers and truth values
(part~\ref{dom:basic} of Figure~\ref{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras})
are considered.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\begin{SemanticAlgebra}
\vspace{-.8em}
\DomainTitle{Entities}
\DomainDef{o}{Entity}{Id \mtimes Entity-attribute \mtimes Entity-event}
\WhereIndentedFormula{
q \in \DN{Entity-attribute}}{\DN{Id} \mto \DN{Value}\\
t \in \DN{Entity-event} = \DN{Id} \mto \DN{Value}}
\DomainTitle{Stores}
\label{dom:stores}
\DomainDef{$\sigma$}{Store}{Id \mto Entity$_\bot$}
\par Operations\par
\OperationDef{newstore}{Id \mto Entity$_\bot$}{\param{i}$\bot$}
\OperationDef{join}{Store \mto Store \mto Store}
{\param{\sigma_1}\param{\sigma_2} %
$(\param{i} \sigma_1(i) ~combine~ \sigma_2(i))$}
\OperationDef{join$^*$}{\PowerSet{Store} \mto Store}
{\param{S} $
\sigma_1 \DO{join} ... (\sigma_{n-1} \DO{join} \sigma_n )$, \textnormal{\hspace{1em}where}
$\sigma_i \in S, i <
\left\vert{S}\right\vert$ \textnormal{and} $S$ \textnormal{ is finite}}
\OperationDefMath{\DO{access-action}}{Id \mto Id \mto Env-interface \mto Store \mto Action-struct}{
\param{i_a}\param{i_o}\param{e}\param{\sigma}~(\DO{access}~i_a~(\DO{access}~(\sigma~i_o)\dasub 1~e)\dasub 3)\dasub 2}
\OperationDefMath{\DO{access-event}}{Id \mto Id \mto Store \mto Value}{%
\param{i_e}\param{i_o}\param{\sigma}((\sigma~i_o)\dasub 3~ i_e)}
\OperationDefMath{\DO{update-event}}{Id \mto Id \mto Value \mto Store \mto Store}{%
\param{i_e}\param{i_o}\param{p}\param{\sigma}
\callupdate{i_o}{\mtup{(\sigma~i_o)\dasub 1, (\sigma~i_o)\dasub 2, \callupdate{i_e}{p}{(\sigma~i_o)\dasub 3}}}{\sigma} }
{\small \textnormal{Note : \DO{access-interface}, \DO{access-attribute} and \DO{update-attribute} are handled similarly}
}\vspace{-.5em}
\end{SemanticAlgebra}
\caption{Semantic algebras for the specification layer (continued)}
\label{fig:speclayer-semantic-algebras-store}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Definition of the specification layer}
\label{sec:speclayer-def}
The abstract syntax and the valuation functions for the specification
layer appear in Figures~\ref{fig:speclayer-abstract-syntax} and
~\ref{fig:speclayer-valuation-functions}. A specification S consists
of a set of interfaces F and an initial set of entities O. Note that,
at runtime, these entities can be removed and new entities can be
deployed.
\begin{figure}[h!tbp]
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\textwidth}
\begin{syndom}
\DOMAIN{S}{Specification}
\DOMAIN{F}{Interface-declaration}
\DOMAIN{P}{Attribute}
\DOMAIN{E}{Sensing-capability}
\DOMAIN{A}{Actuating-capability}
\DOMAIN{O}{Entity-declaration}
\DOMAIN{G}{Assignment}
\end{syndom}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.3\textwidth}
\begin{syndom}
\DOMAIN{T}{Type-structure}
\DOMAIN{X}{Value}
\end{syndom}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.2\textwidth}
\begin{syndom}
\DOMAIN{I}{Identifier}
\DOMAIN{N}{Numeral}
\end{syndom}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.48\textwidth}
\begin{grammar}
\RULE{S}
\CASE{\NT{F};\NT{O}}
\RULE{F}
\CASE{\NT{F$_1$};\NT{F$_2$} \gramor\ interface \NT{I} \char123\NT{P} ; \NT{E} ; \NT{A}\char125}
\RULE{P}
\CASE{\NT{P$_1$};\NT{P$_2$} \gramor\ attribute \NT{I} : \NT{T}}
\RULE{E}
\CASE{\NT{E$_1$};\NT{E$_2$} \gramor\ event \NT{I} : \NT{T}}
\RULE{A}
\CASE{\NT{A$_1$};\NT{A$_2$} \gramor\ action \NT{I$_1$}( \NT{T} )}
\RULE{O}
\CASE{\NT{O$_1$};\NT{O$_2$} \gramor\ entity \NT{I$_o$} : \NT{I$_f$} \char123
\NT{G}\char125}
\RULE{G}
\CASE{\NT{G$_1$};\NT{G$_2$} \gramor\ \NT{I} = \NT{X}}
\end{grammar}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{grammar}
\RULE{T}
\CASE{nat \gramor\ bool}
\RULE{X}
\CASE{\NT{N} \gramor\ true \gramor\ false}
\end{grammar}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Abstract syntax for the specification layer}
\label{fig:speclayer-abstract-syntax}
\end{figure}
The \textbf{S} valuation function produces a pair of two environments
named \DN{Env-interface} and \DN{Store}, corresponding to a mapping
from an identifier to an interface, and a mapping from an identifier
to an entity, respectively. This valuation function produces the
environment of entities of a given Pantagruel program by invoking the
\textbf{F} function to produce an environment of interfaces that is
passed as an argument to the \textbf{O} function. In doing so, the
entities can be checked against the interface that they implement.
The \textbf{P}, \textbf{E}, \textbf{A} and \textbf{O} functions are
composed similarly to the \textbf{F} function when involving a
sequence (\eg F$_1$;F$_2$). For conciseness, we have omitted them.
These three functions are responsible for enriching environments. The
\textbf{A} function defines a procedure of the \DN{Action-struct}
domain. Since an action is invoked on an entity, this entity is
referred to as the $i_o$ parameter. Following the procedure
specification suggested by Schmidt~\cite{davidschmidt} (Chapter 8), it
also takes an $x$ formal parameter, which is assumed to be of type
\textbf{T}. When it is invoked through an entity action, this
procedure generates an implicit event of the name of the concerned
action. Finally, the \textbf{O} function states that the values of
sensed data are initially undefined, and the \textbf{G} function
initializes the attributes to some value.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\FunDecl{S}{Specification}{Env-interface \mtimes Store}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{S}{F O}{\LetMath{e}{\FC{F} \DO{empty}}\InS{\mtup{e, \FC{O}e~\DO{empty}}}}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{F}{Interface-declaration}{Env-interface \mto Env-interface}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{F}{F$_1$;F$_2$}{\FCI{F}{2} \circ \FCI{F}{1}}\\
\FunDef{F}{\kw{interface} I \kw{\char123} P ; E ; A \kw{\char125}}{\param{e}\DO{update} \FID{I}
~\mtup{\FC{P} \DO{empty}, \FC{E} \DO{empty}, \FC{A} \DO{empty}} ~e}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{P}{Attribute}{Interface-attribute \mto Interface-attribute}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{P}{\kw{attribute} I \kw{:} T}{\param{p}\DO{update} \FID{I} ~\FC{T} ~p}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{E}{Sensing-capability}{Interface-event \mto Interface-event}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{E}{\kw{event} I \kw{:} T}{\param{s}\DO{update} \FID{I} ~\FC{T} ~s}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{A}{Actuating-capability}{Interface-action
\mto Interface-action}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{A}{\kw{action} I \kw{(} T \kw{)}}
{\param{a}\DO{update} \FID{I} \mtup{\FC{T}, \param{i_o}\param{x}(\DO{update-event}\FID{I}~i_o~x)}~a}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{O}{Entity-declaration}{Env-interface \mto Store \mto Store}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{O}{\kw{entity} I$_{o}$ : I$_{f}$ \kw{\char123} G \kw{\char125}}%
{ \param{e}\param{\sigma}
\IndentedFormula{
\DO{update} \FIDI{I}{o}~\mtup{\FIDI{I}{f},%
(\FC{G}(\DO{access}\FIDI{I}{f}~e)\dasub 1~\DO{empty}), \DO{empty}}~\sigma}
}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{G}{Assignment}{Interface-attribute \mto Entity-attribute \mto Entity-attribute}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{G}{G$_1$;G$_2$}{\param{p}(\FCI{G}{2}p) \circ (\FCI{G}{1}p)}\\
\FunDef{G}{I \kw{=} X}{\param{p}\param{q}
\DO{update-attribute} \FID{I}~\FC{X}~q}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FC{X}\!:\DN{Value} (operations omitted; X is assumed to be a constant numeral or boolean here)
\caption{Valuation functions for the specification layer}
\label{fig:speclayer-valuation-functions}
\end{figure}
In our definitions, type checking is not performed yet. To check that
the value assigned to an attribute is consistent with the interface of
the concerned entity, the functionality of the \textbf{O} function
must be modified to take in account an erroneous \DN{Entity-attribute}
construction. To do so, we use the same definition as the one proposed
by Schmidt for the \DN{Store} domain (see ~\cite{davidschmidt}, Chapter
7): the \DN{Entity-attribute} domain is tagged to indicate
an attribute initialization failure, and a \DO{check} operation
prevents further assignments in case of an error.
\vspace{.6em}\\
\DomainDefInline{Post-entity-attribute}{p}{OK + Err}
\par\hspace{2em}\textnormal{\;\preg{where}\ } \DN{OK} = \DO{Entity-attribute} \DO{and} \DN{Err} = \DO{Entity-attribute}.
\\Operations\\
\noindent\OperationInfixDef{check}{}{f}{$($Entity-attribute \mto Post-entity-attribute$)$\mto $($Entity-attribute \mto Post-entity-attribute$)$}{%
$\param{p}\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } (p) \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ } \xchoice{\IS{OK}{s}}{(f~s)} \ensuremath{\otherwise} \xchoice{\IS{Err}{s}}{p}
\textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ }$}
~\\\noindent Assignment is then adjusted to check type consistency by calling the \emph{check} operation : ~\\
\noindent\FunDecl{G}{Assignment}{Interface-attribute \mto Entity-attribute
\mto Post-entity-attribute}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDef{G}{G$_1$;G$_2$}{\param{p} ~(\DO{check}~(\FCI{G}{2}p)) \circ (\FCI{G}{1} p)}\\
\FunDef{G}{I \kw{=} X}{\param{p}\param{q}
\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } (\DO{access}~\FID{I}~p) \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ }\\\hspace{4em} \IndentedFormula{
\xchoice{\IS{Nat-type}{}}{\textnormal{\preg{cases}\ } x \textnormal{\;\preg{of}\ }\\\hspace{2em}
\xchoice{\IS{Nat}{n}}{\IN{OK}{(\DO{update} \FID{I}~(\FC{X})~q)}}
\ensuremath{\otherwise}
\xchoice{\IS{Tr}{b}}{\IN{Err}{q}} \textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ }\\
}
\xchoice{\IS{Tr-type}{}}{ ...~\textnormal{similar processing as above}~...}
\textnormal{\;\preg{end}\ }}}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
The introduction of the \DN{Post-entity-attribute} implies adjusting
the functionality of the \textbf{O} function accordingly. The same
modifications can be applied to the formal parameter of actions (not
shown here).
\section{Tour of Pantagruel}
\label{sec:tour}
The Pantagruel language is introduced using a working example: a
building-automation application. This application is responsible for
switching on/off lights of a room when a motion is detected in a
room. It also helps regulating the temperature of rooms using
fans. Although rather simplistic, this working example is sufficient
to illustrate the salient features of the Pantagruel language. More
elaborate examples can be found elsewhere~\cite{phddrey}.
A key feature of Pantagruel is the tight coupling of the
specification layer with the orchestration layer. It allows users to
easily and safely develop their own orchestration
applications. Figure~\ref{fig:specification-layer} gives a
specification for our working example. This specification consists of
four entity interfaces and eight entity instances. For example, the
\texttt{Motion\-Detector} interface declares a sensing capability,
named \texttt{detected}, enabling to signal the presence or the
absence of a motion. The \texttt{Light} interface declares an
actuating capability, named \texttt{switch}, enabling to switch on/off
the entity. Both interfaces have a \texttt{room} attribute, indicating
the location of the entity in the building. For simplicity, the types
of all the elements in this specification are either integer or
boolean. Next, entity instances are defined, according to the
declarations of interfaces. For example, \texttt{l10} is an entity
whose implementation conforms to the \texttt{Light} interface. As a
result, this entity can be switched on/off. Moreover, its
\texttt{room} attribute is initialized to the value \texttt{101}.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
\texttt{\underline{Interfaces}}
\begin{lstlisting}[language=pantagruel,
breakatwhitespace=true]
interface MotionDetector {
attribute room : Integer
event detected : Boolean }
interface Light {
attribute room : Integer
action switch( Boolean ) }
interface Fan {
attribute room : Integer
action setSpeed( Integer ) }
interface TemperatureSensor {
event temperature : Integer }
\end{lstlisting}
\end{minipage}
\vline\vline\hspace{2em}
\begin{minipage}[t]{.40\textwidth}
\texttt{\underline{Entities}}
\begin{lstlisting}[language=pantagruel,
breakatwhitespace=true]
m10:MotionDetector { room : 101 }
m20:MotionDetector { room : 201 }
l10:Light { room : 101 }
l11:Light { room : 101 }
l20:Light { room : 201 }
fan10:Fan { room : 101 }
fan20:Fan { room : 201 }
thermo:TemperatureSensor{}
\end{lstlisting}
\end{minipage}
\caption{A specification for a building equipped with motion
detectors, lights, fans, and temperature sensors}
\label{fig:specification-layer}
\end{figure}
Given a specification, an orchestration logic is then defined to
orchestrate the entities. In Pantagruel, this orchestration logic
consists of a set of rules, combining the sensing and actuating
capabilities of entities. Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer} gives
three orchestration rules for our working example. Rule~(1) switches
the lights on (referred to as \texttt{l}) in the rooms where a motion
has been detected (instance of motion detector referred to as
\texttt{m}). Inversely, Rule~(2) switches the lights off in the rooms
where no motion has been detected. This rule uses the operators
\textbf{all} and \textbf{groupby} to aggregate and group together some
data collected by entities. These domain-specific operators are not
detailed in this paper. Finally, Rule~(3) adjusts the
speed of a fan when two conditions are satisfied : (1) a light in the
room where the fan is located has been switched on, and (2) the
temperature sensed by the \texttt{thermo} entity is equal to
\texttt{30}. This rule illustrates the ability of an orchestration
logic to react to the execution of an action (here, a light is
switched on). To do so, each action in Pantagruel produces an {\em
implicit event} when it is triggered. This event has the same name
as the action and its type consists of the types of the action
parameters. These three rules show how the language constructs enable
to interact either with a particular entity (\eg the \texttt{thermo}
entity in Rule (3)), or with a set of entities via their
interfaces. Moreover, the dependencies between the entities within an
orchestration rule are made explicit by the \textbf{with} clause.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\begin{lstlisting}[language=pantagruel,
breakatwhitespace=true]
rules
(1) when
event detected from m:MotionDetector value = true
trigger
action switch(true) on l:Light with room = m.room
end
(2) when
all event detected from m:MotionDetector value = false groupby room
trigger
action switch(false) on l:Light with room = m.room
end
(3) when
event switch from l:Light value = true
and event temperature from thermo value = 30
trigger
action setSpeed(10) on f:Fan with room = l.room
end
end
\end{lstlisting}
\vspace{-1.4em}
\caption{An orchestration logic for a building-automation application}
\label{fig:orchestration-layer}
\end{figure}
To illustrate the behavior of a Pantagruel program,
Figure~\ref{fig:statemachine} shows an excerpt of an execution trace
for the orchestration rules given in
Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer}. This trace illustrates the
behavior of our working example when a person enters the room
\texttt{101} which was empty until then.
It is represented as a sequence of states, where
each state consists of both the values of data collected by entities
and the implicit events. The transitions between states correspond
either to an update of collected data, or to a rule
execution. Consider Rule~(1) given in
Figure~\ref{fig:orchestration-layer}. When a person is detected in the
room \texttt{101}, the \texttt{m10} entity updates its
\texttt{detected} data, leading to the state \texttt{s1}. This
situation then satisfies the execution conditions of Rule~(1) for
\texttt{m = m10}, triggering the \texttt{switch} action on the
\texttt{l10} and \texttt{l11} lights. This leads to the state
\texttt{s2}, which contains the updated values for the implicit event
\texttt{switch} of these lights. At this state, the execution
conditions of Rule~(3) are verified for \texttt{thermo} (\ie
\texttt{temperature} value is 30), setting the speed of the
\texttt{fan10} entity. Note that the value of an implicit event is
initially undefined (\texttt{undef}), and after each update caused by
an action execution, it becomes again undefined at the next state
change. From the state \texttt{s3}, the temperature sensed by the
\texttt{thermo} entity is updated twice. Note that Rule (1) is
triggered only once in the trace, \ie as long as the \texttt{detected}
attribute of the motion detector remains true. The execution
continues indefinitely, either waiting for updates of data collected
by entities, or the appearance of new entities.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\input{statechart.tex}
\caption{An example of an execution trace of a Pantagruel program}
\label{fig:statemachine}
\end{figure}
| )}}}
\\\textnormal{\;\preg{where}\ } \sigma_{-1} = \DO{newstore}
\\ \textnormal{\;\preg{and}\ } \DO{update-external}: \DN{Store} \to \DN{Store} \to \DN{Store}
\\ \textnormal{\;\preg{and}\ } \DO{update-internal}: \DN{Env-interface} \to \DN{Store} \to \DN{Store} \to \DN{Store}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\FunDecl{K}{Rule-block}{Env-interface \mto DualStore \mto Store}\\\vspace{-.7em}
\FunDef{K}{\kw{rules} R \kw{end}}{\FC{R}}
\caption{Valuation function of the top-level program}
\label{fig:dynsce}
\end{figure}
\subsubsection{Rule evaluation}
\label{sec:rule-evaluation} The {\bf R} function requires an
environment $\rho$ and a dual store $\delta$ as illustrated in
Figure~\ref{fig:dynrule}. Rule events are evaluated with the {\bf W}
function with respect to the dual-store strategy. Their evaluation
produces an entity environment $\rho_e$, mapping variables, declared
in the event definition, to a reference (\DN{Reference}) to an current
entity. Event evaluation also produces a boolean function whose
execution is done once the $\rho_e$ environment is fully
defined. Actions are then evaluated with the {\bf C} function, taking
$\rho_e$, and updating it into $\rho_a$ with new variables appearing
in actions. Both $\rho_e$ and $\rho_a$ are in the scope of the rule
block~\textbf{when}~...~\textbf{end}.
\paragraph{Rule as a pattern.}
At this stage of the rule evaluation process, variables declared in
the $\rho_a$ environment do not refer to current entities yet,
preventing the action evaluation to complete. We thus need to
``instantiate'' $\rho_a$ by mapping each of its variables to a current
entity of the specification.
In fact, more than one entity for each variable of an entity
environment may be concerned by an event (an action, respectively).
As a result, more than one instantiation of environment may match the
events (the actions, respectively).
We thus need to construct a set of such entity environments, mapping
entity variables to identifiers of current entities. This is done by
defining the set $P$: given an entity variable $i_v$ declared with
interface $i_f$, it builds all the environments, such that for each
environment an entity of the same interface $i_f$ is mapped to $i_v$.
Each resulting environment is then given as an argument to the partly
evaluated actions, which return a store.
Stores produced by the actions are finally joined with
\emph{join}$^*$
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
\FunDecl{R}{Rule}{Env-interface \mto DualStore \mto Store}
\begin{ValuationFunctions}
\FunSeq{R}{\param{e}\param{\delta}%
(\FCI{R}{1} e~ \delta) \DO{join}
(\FCI{R}{2} e~ \delta)}\\
\FunDef{R}{\kw{when} W \kw{trigger} C \kw{end}}
{\param{e}\param{\mtup{\sigma_{t-1}, \sigma_t}}
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_e, b} = (\FC{W}\mtup{\sigma_{t-1}, \sigma_t}~\DO{empty}~(\param{\rho}\DN{true})) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\\hspace{2em}
\IndentedFormula{%
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } \mtup{\rho_a, a} = (\FC{C}e~\sigma_t ~\rho_
~(\param{\rho}\DO{newstore})) \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\textnormal{\;\preg{let}\ } P = \DO{instantiate} ~\sigma_t~\rho_a \textnormal{\;\preg{in}\ }\\
\DO{join$^*$}\SetOfMath{
((b~\rho_{inst})\to (a~\rho_{inst}) \ensuremath{\otherwise} newstore)}{ \rho_{inst}
\in P }}}
\end{ValuationFunctions}
\caption{Valuation function of a rule}
\label{fig:dynrule}
\end{figure}
\subsubsection{Event evaluation}
\label{sec:event-evaluation}
The \textbf{W} function evaluates events with a dual store $\delta$
(in ``read-only'' mode), an environment $\rho$, and a boolean function
$b$. The functionality of \textbf{W} shows that an event produces a
pair of functions: an environment and a boolean function. The
environment is updated by the \textbf{D} function, and the boolean
function is defined by the \textbf{B} function. Specifically, the
\textbf{D} function is interpreted as a variable declaration when it
involves an entity variable, augmenting an environment.
The \textbf{B} function evaluates the B test condition on an event,
which is either of the form \kw{value =} X or \kw{value changed}.
Note that other comparison operators can be envisioned. We omit them
for simplicity.
The evaluation of B depends on an entity environment which is
completed after the evaluation of all the combined W events. As a
result, \textbf{B} produces an intermediate evaluation of the test
condition, waiting for an environment to complete. This intermediate
evaluation is specified by a \DN{$\BB$-function}, requiring an
environment to produce a boolean value.
The \textbf{B} function also depends on the dual store: when B is of
the form \kw{value =} X, it yields true if the value of event
\FID{I$_e$} equals \FC{X} at time $t$ and not at $t-1$. When B is of
the form \kw{value changed}, it yields true as often as the event
value changes, \ie when its value at $t$ is different from its value at
$t-1$.
Finally, to be concerned by an event, an entity may further need to
satisfy an extra condition. This condition is evaluated by the
\textbf{F} function, which is similar to \textbf{B}: instead of
testing an event value, it tests an attribute value, and produces a
\DN{$\BB$-function} denoting this test. We ignored the case where the
``\textbf{with} F'' term does not appear, for it is equivalent to
setting ($\FC{F}i~\sigma$) to the constant value (\param{\rho}true).
\begin{figure}[h!tp]
\FunDecl | 1,558 |
This class is a condensed version of the Hot 75. We recommend that students participate in a Hot 75 class prior to their<|fim_middle|> also allows the body to access a greater range of motion, and provides a safe, gentle, and effective stretch throughout the class. | first Hot 60 to acquire a solid foundation first. All 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises remain, but some postures are performed only once. This is a great class is great for those who have limited time, or are slowly acclimatizing to a hot practice.
Hot 75 is a beginners hot series of 26 postures and 2 breathing techniques designed to provide a challenging, invigorating and rejuvenating yoga experience. This class is divided between a standing portion and a floor portion, with each posture performed twice. This class is good for students who are not looking to do any weight bearing with the upper body, as there is not downward dog or arm balancing postures. The yoga room is heated to increase the circulation in the body and assist in preventing and healing injuries more efficiently. The heat | 170 |
Once printers, the Berlin office of Covus keeps some industrial details|The ground floor serves as a reception area, cafe and events space|Coloured walls and a parquet floor soften the industrial steel staircases|With a futuristic starkness, the boardroom has a no-nonsense aesthetic|A sublime library has just enough room for a few book shelves and some chairs|The Bretterbude ('sh<|fim_middle|> and pendants take their cues from the building's industrial heritage. There are also stretches of blackboard walls, which give a nod to the quirkiness of downstairs in what are quite conventional-looking upper floors.
The brief called for a workspace that engendered both creativity and collaboration, and the client should be more than satisfied with the result. The ground floor reception has that all-important power to impress, while the serious business of digital marketplaces and Freemium business models can be got on with upstairs.
Interior Landscaping Transforms an Industrial Warehouse in Sydney's southeast
Wieden+Kennedy by Featherstone Young
Geyer gets creative with JWT's Sydney office
Mirror walls transform corporate lobby | ack'), with walls and floors made from melamine|Corridors have blackboard-covered walls carrying company missives||
Industrial meets digital at Covus, Berlin
Words by Helen Parton
Seel Bobsin Partner has revamped an early 20th century loft with a modern edge for Covus's Berlin office
Over here in London, space is at a premium: office floorplates are increasingly dense, office rents remain high and sufficient housing provision a joke. Cut to Berlin and the story couldn't be more different. A population of just 3.52 million has room to live and breathe in comfort and, despite some whinging from local creatives about rising living costs, it's still comparatively cheap. Let's just say, it's still possible to get a lot of warehouse space for your euro.
Which brings us to the Covus offices in Prenzlauer Berg, a central district in the former East Berlin.
Covus is a digital commerce company, set up a decade ago; with over 15,000 domain names in its portfolio, it leads the way in digital marketing, and its workforce has grown from 15 to more than 50 in the last five years. Staff were spread over three locations in Berlin, so this was a chance to house everyone together for the first time, making for better internal communication.
Those in charge at Covus wanted to get away from the feel of it being a start-up. In a neat handover from old media to new, this office used to be the home to the Gutenberg publishing house.
Now it is Covus's programmers, marketers, SEO specialists and designers, as opposed to printers, who call this location their workplace.
Architectural studio Seel Bobsin Partner (SBP), which is based in Hamburg, was keen not to eliminate the building's industrial past and so the Art Nouveau facade, which dates back to the turn of the 20th century and forms the entrance to the factory, has been carefully retained.
"The client had a desire to show that it valued its young, fast-growing group of companies"
The office is set across three floors, and designer Kim Marc Bobsin says that the main goal "was to preserve the existing Berlin factory area. We did this through a mix of materials, furniture and lighting to create a really special and modern atmosphere."
On paper, the juxtaposition of a metal spiral staircase next to a big slab of Corian on the ground floor might seem a bit ungainly but it somehow works. There's certainly been no skimping on the specification here, not just evidenced by the aforementioned super-expensive solid surface material but the AAC dining chairs by Danish firm Hay facing an oversized Chesterfield-style bit of upholstery with Tom Dixon's Beat lights suspended above in the Covus cafe.
It's all in the name of underpinning the corporate values, explains Bobsin: "The client came to us with a desire to show that it valued its young, fast-growing group of companies. The interior also had a positive role to play in supporting recruitment: employees and would-be recruits should feel they are in safe hands."
The project began in earnest in late December 2011 with SBP working with Notholt Lighting Design. As is now par for the course in modern workspaces, they installed a variety of different work settings, although without any major structural work being done; separate air conditioning wasn't needed as there are lots of windows to open. Acoustic solutions were tweaked as necessary after staff moved in, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
There's everything from the more traditional boardroom overlooking the courtyard – with an all-white furniture selection to symbolise the company's values of clarity and openness – to the anthracite-coloured 'war room'. Here, there are no concessions to frippery: it's sparsely furnished with a democratically round table, eight task chairs and that's it. Next door is the library, where staff can get on with some research or hold a private conversation, with a brace of stags' heads on the dusky orange walls and easy chairs with a distinctly vintage vibe, deftly making use of what is an awkward narrow space.
On the other side of the war room is the Bretterbude, which translates simply as 'shack'. The benches and wall are a seamless vision realised in Cleaf, a melamine panel system from Italy. The broad sweep of the ground floor, with its reception area and cafe, functions as an event space as well as a workplace.
We selected furniture that could be adapted, because employees are always moving around"
This office is very much an evolution for Covus, a sort of tech workplace 2.0 if you will. It needed to convey a sense of professionalism, communicating to the outside world that the company is a rapidly evolving, grown-up outfit with the sleekest of floor finishes and all the fancy down lighters money can buy.
On the first and top floors things get more serious still, as this is where the workstations can be found. Desking areas with room for up to eight people are divided by transparent screens with designated desks kept to an absolute minimum. Bobsin says that "the client wanted flexible desk configurations with height adjustability. We selected furniture and storage that could be adapted quickly because employees are always moving around and team structures are ever changing."
A programmer, for example, needs no storage space but will require more desk space than, say, a marketeer, with at least two screens and other accessories. Floor lamps (in this instance, the GO XT model by Tobias Grau) are predominantly used in these group offices, while corridor wall lights | 1,164 |
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EcoStructure Magazine delivers a wealth of practical information and real-world examples of green building. It is the leading source<|fim_middle|> Cities Collective as a media partner for CNU 21. Sustainable Cities Collective is one of the leading platforms for leaders of major metropolitan areas, urban planning and sustainability professionals. | of information about green-building products and commercial projects.
Digital storytellers First+Main Media produce award-winning feature-length documentaries for television, as well as promotional and advocacy videos, online video channels, and digital communication strategies for Fortune 500 companies, universities, government agencies, international non-profits, and national organizations like CNU. Committed to promoting new urbanism, First+Main Media created the short animated film Built to Last, (CNU17 contest winner) and is currently producing American Makeover, (six-part series on urbanism and sprawl).
Visit firstandmain.tv to learn how we can make power of video work for you, whether it be a single brand essence short film, or a complete digital communication strategy.
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CNU is excited to announce its collaboration with Sustainable | 250 |
You'll find me under a tree in my backyard. O.K. I'm not outside all day but I've been spending a lot more time there.
I've fallen in love with the butterflies, the constant cooing of pigeons, and for the first time in many years, I've planted tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant and<|fim_middle|>But we've lost our way and it's literally killing us, spiritually, emotionally, physically.
I have to admit that I had totally neglected my garden until it came up in my reading. It's all about balance. Turn off that cell phone, turn off the T.V. or social media and venture outdoors more often. Simple changes in your daily routine can make a huge difference in how you think and feel about your challenges and your future.
I'm glad I listened. I feeling more energized. I love the solitude and the peace of mind that comes with it.
Enough about me. What steps are you taking to connect to Nature? I would love to hear about it. So reply to this blog and I'll be sure to write you back.
Until next time, may the ancestors bless you from the north, the south, the east and the west.
If you've enjoyed reading this article, sign up for my free inspirational newsletters below. | a blueberry bush.
But I can't take full credit for my decision to spend more time outside.
It came up in a spiritual reading I had recently. I was told my schedule is about to get super busy and the energy of my garden will keep me grounded.
I'm sharing this with you because I know you can benefit from a closer connection to nature too. Granted, you might not have a garden in your backyard, but I'm sure there's someplace close to you, where you can connect to nature.
You could be overlooking the medicine your soul needs, and it's powerful and free.
If you've been feeling drained, depressed, uninspired, bogged down by the craziness in our world, a closer bond with the earth might be part of the medicine you need.
Indigenous cultures know this because their spiritual worldview revolves around nature.
| 173 |
Thank you for your interest in EncinoMom. It is my intention to bring the very<|fim_middle|>Mom. Sounds like a fun business! | best of my experience and expertise to assist you in your quest to be all you can be. Every day I strive to find more beauty, love and joy to share. I know whatever we focus on increases (whether it's our waistlines or our wallets). I also know, when we tap into our highest and best selves we join in spirit with everyone else doing the same. As we celebrate the peace in our lives, the love in our hearts, the gratitude we feel, we create a better world for ourselves and for our children.
Before I was a mom, I was an actor and singer, traveling the world, performing, perfecting my craft and staying out 'til all hours of the night. With the birth of my daughter came changes; expected and un. My figure changed, but so has my desire to hang out in clubs, chatting up side men!
Suddenly and without warning, my sense of connection to everything and everyone around me became palpable. The beauty in my child's eyes spilled into every nook and cranny of my life. So, here I am. The passion, creativity, attention and care I used to spend developing entertainments has flowed into my home life. Motherhood brought my creativity to bare on all things domestic. Whether planting a garden, designing a new kitchen, or planning a party for Halloween, it's got to have style and it'd better be fun!
It is with great humility and hopefully a little humor that I put my best foot forward to share this path with you. I wish for you the very best life you can imagine for yourself. Let's get busy. The world is waiting!
Hello Lisa! Hope all is well! My name is Christine, we met 2 weeks ago at the Taste of Encino event. Amongst all of the vendors I interacted with that day, your magnetic personality and adorable fans with your website's advertisement made it impossible to forget! You had briefly mentioned allowing our Counseling Center to put up a video on your site and we are very interested in doing so if the offer still stands. I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Is this sold in Idaho, and if so, what cities? I live close to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Thanks.
Thank you for your interest. We are the process of making the CD available for sale online. I'll update you as soon as we have a release date! Thanks again!
HI Christine! I am also a mommy blogger and the owner of a new baby boutique on Ventura Blvd, in Encino, CA. I would love the opportunity to talk to you about a possible spot on your blog to spotlight my new boutique. Please feel free to contact me via email everythingmrspennloves@gmail.com. Thanks, Mrs. Penn!
Welcome to Encino. We look forward to visiting your shop and wish you every success in your new endeavor. Thanks for visiting us here at EncinoMom.
My name is Stephanie and my mom and I are opening Pinot's Palette in Encino at the end of May. We are a "paint and sip" business where you come in, drink a little wine and paint a masterpiece (no experience required). We would love to invite you to attend our soft opening event on May 29th. Please let me know where we can send an invitation.
I've sent the information to your email address. Thank you for your interest in Encino | 693 |
Teaching Tai a running dog walk has been an adventure on many levels. It's been fun, exhilarating, frustrating and challenging! I'm using Silvia Trkman's method and fortunately have been able to participate in her on-line running contact classes. I entered into this project with the idea that – at the very least — all the plank work would lead to a solid foundation for the running A-frame and add speed to a stopped dog walk if I decided to go that way. But… that was before the addiction set in.
It has not been an easy journey for me or my long-legged boy. Well…I've largely been successful at keeping his frustration to a minimum. But he's not the one who…after each 5-7 minute training session… often spends another 30 or more minutes analyzing the video, posting video, waiting for a response from Silvia, watching other videos, and thinking about how to proceed next. Hmmm… I did use the word "addiction".
So, what is the behavior? It's not just…get feet in the yellow. It's finish your stride low on the board. If the dog understands this and is truly running – in double suspension gallop- even a long-strided dog like Tai will get 2 rear feet or 2 front feet or combination in the contact zone. Here are two pictures showing the compression and extension of a double stride gallop on the flat.
So what have been our biggest challenges? 1. The biggest challenge of all is training the eye to see what is actually happening. To know what should be rewarded, jackpotted or not rewarded at all. It's easy to see when the video is slowed down to 1/10th normal speed. Not at all easy to spot in the moment. I imagine it's easier for some people than others. But spotting the correct behavior in the RDW was a real challenge for me – especially for a time when I had<|fim_middle|>ikes!
2. Along the way, finding plank set-ups that would accommodate Tai's stride length. Ultimately, going to a low full dogwalk was the answer.
3. The mechanics of throwing a toy reasonably far and true to path :-).
3.Solving the mystery of the "overreaching" problem we encountered once on the full and low dogwalk. The picture shows him working hard to land with rear feet on the ground, rather than on the board. A mystery solved, after much frustration on both our parts, by simply raising the height of the dog walk.
4. Knowing what to do, when Tai wasn't "getting it". Being loose enough and strict enough in criteria.
Ok…enough of words, you must be thinking…let's see it! So, below is a short movie I put together to celebrate where we are in our journey. Still a work in progress – turns off the dogwalk, discriminations, new dogwalks and finishing the two on- two off behavior are ahead of us, but I'm feeling very confident that we're definitely on track and will ultimately be successful. Yippee!
As one of my fellow on-line students wrote…"Running contact training is a great method for teaching the handler to deal with frustration but I will definitely be using this method with my next dog too because running contact heaven is worth spending some time in running contact hell ". Amen. | to discern the difference between front feet and rear feet hits. Y | 13 |
CCSEM's Adult Day Health Services receives funding from the Area Agency on Aging 1B, client fees, and individual and corporate donations. Our Senior Volunteer Programs are funded by the Corporation for National and Community Services and the Office of Services to the Aging. CCSEM Adult Day Center in Oakland County has offered services to vulnerable seniors and their caregivers since 1983, the longest running program of its kind in the<|fim_middle|> with the changes and challenges of life.Two convenient locations are available in Oakland and Macomb counties, open Monday through Friday with extended hours available for working caregivers.
Contact Holly Snodgrass at 248-537-3300 ext. 3803 or snodgrassh@ccsem.org.
Contact Nikki Harvey at 586-412-8494 ext. 4014 or harveyh@ccsem.org.
Transportation assistance for both locations is available for within a 15-mile radius.
Our services allow caregivers to work, go to school, run chores, or take a well-deserved break! CCSEM provides individualized care for clients, making sure their interests are considered in daily activity planning. | county. CCSEM in Macomb County has provided adult day services since 1984.
Since 1983, CCSEM has provided supervised daytime care and activities for adults who are forgetful, confused, or physically frail and need loving, supervised assistance during the day. Caregivers find much needed time and support services to cope | 70 |
VR/AR: The realities of modern construction
By Mike HayesJuly 29, 2020
Construction technology is now blurring the lines between real and programmed structures
Technology firms are not claiming innovations such as virtual and augmented reality are going to change the way infrastructure is built; they say it already has.
Furthermore, these changes are not only happening at the design and preparation sta
Liebherr's Crane Planner 2.0 in action.
ge of projects – they're in operation on jobsites with in-the<|fim_middle|> of all kinds of construction applications."
Augmented reality advocate
At Autodesk University, teams can be trained by learning initially in a virtual environment
Another construction technology leader, Topcon Positioning Group, has also seen that augmented reality can be hugely beneficial throughout the course of major projects.
Duncan McCormick, a construction software sales specialist with Topcon, sings the praises of both virtual and augmented reality, but believes augmented reality could prove to be the most effective onsite.
"It has more to offer the end-user," he says. "For example, creating a 'digital twin' of a real-life project ahead of construction commencing allows contractors to order all the appropriate materials years in advance, offering planning security and allowing them to get the best possible prices on the market. Contractors and project owners have a set amount of time to complete a project and must do it in the most cost-effective and efficient way – augmented reality helps them achieve this.
"Having this virtual model is also hugely beneficial when it comes to clash detection, something we're able to offer through our Magnet software. On large infrastructure projects, there are usually various stakeholders with very different objectives. Traditionally, they're all working in isolation, which can result in 'clashes' that are costly and time-consuming to rectify.
"Topcon's Magnet Live is a web-based digital platform for reviewing and commenting within a 3D virtual model. This provides project stakeholders with all the critical clash and coordination data in one single model. Furthermore, it allows project owners to better anticipate what might go wrong before construction even begins so they can resolve the issue before it happens in real life."
Elsewhere, software firm Autodesk has been working within the construction sector for a number of years and says VR and AR can now be particularly powerful tools for an industry faced with a shortage of skilled workers.
The company says that, using ostensibly simple techniques – including colour-coding and QR codes – combined with sophisticated technology, assembly teams with little or no construction experience, can be trained to a high degree of competency.
Connected technology
Bentley Systems' Synchro XR app for infrastructure operates with Microsoft's HoloLens 2
Autodesk clients are also using its VR technology to improve health and safety, by immersing workers within virtual scenarios that would be dangerous in the real world.
Matt Keen, a construction industry strategist with Autodesk, says, "Combining the power of BIM with the cloud, construction workers have the ability to move from static images to fully immersive, intelligent virtual reality. VR is a valuable tool for the construction industry, particularly during the preconstruction phase when digital data starts to translate into real-world resources and logistics."
However, Keen sees the potential for VR's impact on construction to go deeper still. He says, "Combining VR with other technologies, such as sensors and GPS technology on-site creates a real-time connection between a physical construction site and its digital twin in the cloud – unlocking an infinite number of opportunities for efficiency and project management.
"Bringing various data sources together and real-time analysis enables better decision making and the ability to adapt to the project's needs. Digital twins are a critical enabler for the industry to deliver more sustainable buildings and reduce the negative impact that construction has on the environment."
Digital twins, by the way, are digital replicas of physical things. In effect, they bridge the physical and virtual world and, as data from the physical entity is transmitted to its digital model, the two effectively co-exist as twins. In this way, engineers can test real-world scenarios on the 'twin', assessing its efficiency, resistance to damage, and so on.
Coming back to VR and AR, the uptake of the technology in the field will depend not only on the software developments, but also on the quality of the hardware. Together, they need to create an experience that customers feel comfortable using on a daily basis.
Oracle VP, Mike Antis
Microsoft's Hololens headset is one of the products leading the way in terms of its applications for construction, and a number of construction technology firms have designed software with Hololens in mind.
One of them is Bentley Systems, which last year unveiled its Synchro XR mixed reality app for infrastructure projects, using the Hololens 2 headset.
In basic terms, mixed reality sits somewhere between virtual and augmented reality and, with the Synchro XR system, users can interact collaboratively with the digital construction models they are viewing, using intuitive hand gestures.
According to Bentley Systems, the combined system takes VR and AR a step further, allowing numerous project stakeholders to simultaneously view, interact with and experience 4D objects in space and time.
Noah Eckhouse, senior vice president of project delivery at Bentley Systems, said, "Our Synchro XR app for HoloLens 2 provides a totally new way to interact with digital twins for infrastructure projects. Users benefit from a new perspective on the design and a deeper, more immediate understanding of the work and project schedule."
Mike Antis, a VP at leading technology firm Oracle Construction and Engineering, recently gave his predictions for construction technology in 2020, saying he expects to see, "More emphasis placed on aggregating and analysing data.
"We'll see more focus on the practical use of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning and both virtual and augmented reality. As these innovations start to mature, they'll find specific roles in the construction process and gain greater acceptance as a result."
Global Technology Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality
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Caterpillar adding to construction lineup with four electric machines
As construction transitions to a lower-carbon future, Cat brings support with new compact and medium-sized loaders and excavators powered by new Caterpillar batteries
Disputes cost $100 million per capital construction project
Crux Insight Report predicts Covid's lingering impact of construction-claim disputes on costs and schedules | -field teams benefiting from the latest available technology.
Liebherr unveiled its Crane Planner 2.0 system over a year ago, as a tool for selecting the optimal equipment for specific applications, and operators themselves are appreciating the addition to their in-cab equipment.
Liebherr designed the application with planners and engineers in mind, as it provides the ability to supply infinite configurations of cranes in a multitude of positions.
The latest version of the system allows for a virtual reality walkaround of a site, with all possible movement of a crane evaluated in a safe environment.
The software is used with Liebherr's LR 1100 to LR1300 crawler cranes and combines detailed interactive 3D models with planning data on the specific crane's load moment limitation. Engineers can input data that allows the system to evaluate potential collisions and other hazards.
The additional benefit of the technology is that, along with its pre-construction planning applications, the system ensures safety standards for challenging heavy lifts are maintained. For instance, changes in the crane's geometry activates immediate calculations of the entire situation, leading to a warning in the event of non-compliance with pre-set safety parameters.
Bringing data to life
#*#*Show Fullscreen*#*#
Trimble's SiteVision uses GPS and Google's location-based app to precisely orientate itself
Technology firm Trimble has brought augmented reality to the jobsite with its SiteVision system, which allows operators to check the viability of new designs and alterations, as well as checking progress and identifying issues during the construction phase. Trimble says its potential to 'bring spatial data to life' and visually explore complex instructions from a mobile device, makes it an indispensable piece of in-the-field technology.
One of the benefits of SiteVision is that it uses GNSS (satellite) location to orientate itself in the real world, as opposed to requiring any fixed point or local marker. The software combines the satellite system with Google's location-based app, ARCore.
Initially, a BIM (building information modelling) or CAD (computer aided design) model is imported into the Trimble Connect platform. From there it is simply loaded onto an Android mobile phone, which is then attached to an antenna with a custom bracket. Users can view planned works – potentially including below-ground works – overlaid onto the real-world construction site.
Scott Crozier, general manager of Trimble's civil engineering and construction division, said, "If you want to see progress you can set it up so the model that is loaded is the work you're expecting to have done by a certain date.
"With it you can better visualise complex plans, visualise underground utilities and proposed infrastructure, find design conflicts early in the process. And perform cut and fill checks. You'll also be able to tap on elements visualised on the screen and get a pop-up box with detailed information about those components.
"We see it being used in the civil environment, but also across a cross section | 604 |
Research & Clinical Services
Regulatory &<|fim_middle|> is responsible for SPRIM México operations and managing the relationship between SPRIM Mx and offices worldwide.
Jennifer has a degree in Nutrition and Food Science and is specialized in health marketing & communication
What advice can you give to colleagues on overcoming hurdles when working on challenging projects?
It's crucial to make sure you and the team first understand the objectives and goals of any project; targets and timelines should be clear. Always select the correct people to be part of the team, there are very qualified colleagues within our global network so do not hesitate to leverage our global resources and tap into our worldwide experience.
As a leader, you should always encourage "out of the box" thinking and provide transparency to the client, and internally. Once you build rapport with the client, they may become our word-of-mouth ambassadors. Lastly, always strive for excellence no matter the project.
Where do you think women have the best opportunity to contribute to the future of health?
To me, this is not a matter of contribution by gender. At SPRIM, we all have the opportunity to work collectively to seek-out disruptive solutions that improve healthcare for people all around the world.
Optimizing disease awareness and prevention campaigns, transforming science into better consumer-friendly language, and developing digital solutions to build better assist patients and health care professionals are all important objectives that drive our work. We are fortunate to be able to contribute every day to the future of health.
© 2022 SPRIM. All Rights Reserved | Scientific Affairs
Medical Marketing & Engagement
Digital & AI
Jennifer Ralph, Director of SPRIM Mexico
With more than 18 years of experience in Health Marketing, Communication & Clinical Research, Jennifer | 40 |
Thanks, Dad, for instilling the values to make me a lifetime runner
June 13, 2018 Wayne Fish News Ticker, Running
Dear Dad,
It isn't often that a son gets to wish his father a Happy 100th Birthday and Happy Father's Day in the same week, so I'm going to do that now and share those special thoughts with a "few'' of my close friends.
My dad was born June 10, 1918 and while he is no longer with us in a physical sense, his presence will be inside of me forever.
When people ask me why I do marathons, duathlons, triathlons and national track meets, I can think of many reasons but one stands out above the rest – making my father proud.
Walt was an athlete I could never be. He could skate<|fim_middle|>Thanks for everything.
Your son,
Roll, Stroll, Run 5K, 8 a.m., Souderton. Contact www.indcreek.org Wounded Hero 5K, 11 a.m., Warminster. Contact www.woundedhero.com
Brian Costello says:
Nice reflection on a great relationship Wayne. Thanks for sharing. Your Dad would be very proud.
great story Wayne, we all ( I hope..all) have these special memories of our dads | like the wind, chop down a tree with an ax almost as fast as someone with a chainsaw and shoot out the visible orb of a one-eyed jack from a hundred paces.
He put me on skates to tool around our frozen backyard pond when I was about 3 and it changed my life forever.
Hockey was my game all through high school, college and adult leagues until I approached 30 and realized this was as good as it was going to get.
All through those years, dad was encouraging but never overbearing. He took his turn in the carpool driving kids to practice but always gave me enough space to grow up, which had me well prepared when I set off for distant Colorado to go to college.
Along the way, he set an example by providing me with lessons about hard work, persistence, patience. If he had a temper, he would only let it show for a brief moment (something I'm still trying to master).
By the late '70s, I took up running. Until then, running had been something a hockey player like me only did to stay in shape. Laps around a track seemed tedious and almost a form of punishment.
But at that point I started trail running and it brought me back to my youthful days of butterfly and moth collecting – racing across fields to catch a monarch or swallowtail, pulling it out of my net and then, more times than not, tossing it into the air and watching it fly away.
There were Saturday afternoons when I couldn't wait to run home and show my father what I had caught that day.
They say there's a certain youthful joy about distance running and in my case they were right.
Running those long training miles for my first marathon seemed daunting at first but whenever I had moments of doubt, dad would offer a word of support over a quiet dinner at our home in northern New Jersey.
Once, in a crazy stretch in 1981 when I ran 3 marathons in seven weeks, we shared a good laugh. I made it through unscathed (and to this day, the longest running-related injury I've had has lasted only 11 days).
"Dad,'' I recall saying, "you certainly gave me a good set of knees.''
He just smiled and nodded.
If only I had told him how much more he had given me.
Happy Birthday, Dad. And Happy Father's Day, too.
| 494 |
Bodhinatha compares faith based on belief with the faith that comes from one's personal experience of God. Three stages in the development of faith are presented and Bodhinatha then gives bhashya on the third stage: "Faith in one's own spiritual, unsought-for, unbidden flashes of intuition, revelations or visions." He describes two kinds of spiritual experiences: the realms of the Deities and the realm of superconsciousness.
Religious believing is seeing. Goes on to explain that the scientists and the educators of today see with their two eyes and pass judgments based on what they currently believe. The rishis of the past and the rishis of the now and those yet to come in the future, also are seers. This seeing is not with the two eyes, it is with the third eye. The eye of the soul.
An interesting aspect of faith that is important to mention is that it can be systematically increased. To illustrate this point let's compare the cultivation of faith to the development of a large tree. When the tree is just a sapling it can easily be uprooted just as when our faith is based on belief without a sound philosophical knowledge, it can easily be destroyed. Faith based on philosophical knowledge is like a medium sized tree, strong and not easily disturbed. Faith based on personal experience of God and the Gods is like a full grown tree, well established and impervious to the environment.
Let's look more closely at these three stages of the development of faith.
Faith in it's initial stage is simple belief without the support of either knowledge or experience. Keeping our belief strong at this stage depends heavily on the companionship we keep. We need to keep company with spiritual individuals and avoid worldly and non-religious people. Attending a weekly satsang with like minded devotees is quite helpful. Having the darshan of visiting swamis and Hindu religious leaders helps keep our faith strong as we see them as living examples of the beliefs in which we have faith.
Faith in its second stage is belief strengthened by a good understanding of Hindu philosophy. Gurudeva comments on this process in saying that a clear intellectual understanding of the philosophy is the bedrock to sustaining faith. Study Hinduism in a systematic and consistent manner and increase your knowledge about Hindu beliefs and practices. Compare Hinduism to the world's other major religions and see in which ways they are the same and in which ways they are quite different. This not only makes you a knowledgeable Hindu but is also the most effective protection against the efforts of other religions to convert you to their beliefs.
Faith in its third stage is where personal experience supplants belief. Gurudeva refers to this as advanced faith and describes this as faith in one's own spiritual, unsought-for, unbidden flashes of intuition, revelations or visions, which one remembers even stronger as the months go by, more vividly than something read from a book, seen on television or heard from a friend or a philosopher.
Experiential or advanced faith is cultivated through the regular practice of devotion and meditation that leads eventually to personal experiences of the Divine. Pilgrimages, for example, are an effective way of deepening the experiences we have at the temple of the personal Deity as is daily meditation practiced under a qualified teacher.
In conclusion, here is Gurudeva's full definition of Astikya. "Cultivate an unshakable faith. Believe firmly in God, Gods, guru and your path to enlightenment. Trust in the words of the masters, the scriptures and traditions. Practice devotion and sadhana to inspire experiences that build advanced faith. Be loyal to your lineage, one with your satguru. Shun those who try to break your faith by argument and accusation. Avoid doubt and despair."
Let me share some additional thoughts on the third stage of faith which as we mentioned is based on personal experiences of the Divine. Such experiences can also be referred to as spiritual experiences. Spiritual experiences are of two distinct realms: the realms of the Deities and the realm of superconsciousness.
A spiritual experience in the realm of the Deities would be a vision of a Deity such as Lord Ganesha. These visions usually come during a time of intense worship such as at a temple festival or when on pilgrimage. Visions of the Deity can take the form of the stone or bronze murthi moving and smiling at you, (that's always nice, right?) or turning into an animated, human-like figure. Another form is with eyes closed to inwardly see the Deity's face, as real as any living being.
A spiritual experience in the realm of superconsciousness is experiencing in meditation inner realms such as the clear white light. Gurudeva describes one such experience in his writing the "Clear White Light": "Occasionally young aspirants burst into inner experience indicating a balance of intense light at a still-higher rate of vibration of here-and-now awareness than their almost daily experience of a moon-glow of inner light: the dynamic vision of seeing the head, and at times the body, filled with a brilliant clear white light. When this intensity can be attained at will, more than often man will identify himself as actinic force flowing through the odic externalities of the outer mind and identify it as a force of life more real and infinitely more permanent than the external mind itself."
So I found an interesting point in Gurudeva's lesson of the day from "Dancing with Siva" I'll just, I'll read it, it's not too long and then make the comment. "Parasiva, the Self God, must be realized to be known, does not exist, yet seems to exist; yet existence itself and all states of mind, being and experiential patterns could not exist but for this ultimate reality of God. Such is the great mystery that yogis, rishis, saints and sages have realized through the ages. To discover Parasiva, the yogi penetrates deep into contemplation. As thoughts arise in his mind, mental concepts of the world or of the God he seeks, he silently repeats, 'Neti, neti--it is not this; it is not that.' His quieted consciousness expands into Satchidananda. He is everywhere, permeating all form in this blissful state. He remembers his goal, which lies beyond bliss, and holds firmly to 'Neti, neti--this is not that for which I seek.' Through pranayama, through mantra, through tantra, wielding an indomitable will, the last forces of form, time and space subside, as the yogi, deep in nirvikalpa samadhi, merges into Parasiva."
So the point that stuck me in the middle of that is this concept. "As thoughts arise in his mind, mental concepts of the world or of the God he seeks, he silently repeats, 'Neti, neti--it is not this; it is not that.'"
So the idea is that we need to distinguish between our thought about an inner experience, and the inner experience itself. In other words, sitting in meditation and thinking about the experience of inner light is quite distinct from the actual experience of inner light.
If we cannot experience an area of the inner mind through thinking about it, how do we experience it? Any idea? The answer, of course, is through our ability to feel as well as our ability to see. Easier one is to feel. So here's an example of using our ability to feel from Gurudeva's "Preparation for Meditation" description.
So Gurudeva says: "The third step takes us deeper inside as we become dynamically aware in the spine. Feel the power within the spine, the powerhouse of energy that feeds out to the external nerves and muscles. Visualize the spine in your mind's eye. See it as a hollow tube or channel through which life energies flow. Feel it with your inner feelings. It's there--subtle and silent, yet totally intense. It is a simple feeling. As you feel this hollow spine filled with energy,<|fim_middle|>'ll be developing in some of my talks during Gurudeva's Mahasamadhi in a few weeks, concept of feeling something rather than thinking about it. Cause it's a, it's not necessarily that clear to someone who's trying to practice meditation, the difference. You get hung up in thinking about it. So you're sitting down and you're thinking about the power of the spine. Well it must be somewhere and you know you're thinking about it but you're not feeling it. So it's an ability that we don't necessarily develop automatically. You know and unfortunately school is rather lopsided usually and just focusses on thinking. You know we learn how to think but certain skills don't work that way like painting, for example. You can't create a painting or appreciate a painting by thinking about it. You know we have to feel it, we have to transcend the thinking process. Even to appreciate nature, you go out in nature, you can't think about a flower; you have to look at it, you have to see it and appreciate it. So, so often we're caught up in our thoughts about things we don't really see them or feel them.
And Gurudeva would give an example, a humorous example, which means you're supposed to laugh when I say it. He's teaching basic meditation which has to do with you know, the energy in the body. basic pranayama and he would say: "Feel your right foot." And about three quarters of those present would look down to see where their right foot was. Cause they weren't used to feeling their right foot. You know it was a new experience. That you're feeling something. So anyway it's a very important distinction and to summarize it; the idea is that in our form of meditation we're not trying to think about something, we're trying to actually feel it or see it. We're not simply trying to think about it. So that's the idea.
Do we have Ayudha Puja. We just wander out their is that the idea? What time is it? 7:15. O.K. Well we're on schedule for 7:30. So if anyone doesn't know what a Ayudha Puja is, tool blessing. So it's a wonderful Hindu practice that once a year the tools you use in your occupation or if you're a student in, you're being a student, you bless them. Do a puja to them. You bless them in some way and it's a good symbol that there's no difference between our secular life and our religious life. We're blessing the tools we use in our secular life. So if you've ever been in India that day for example, the taxicab drivers their taxis look like temples because they have banana trees tied on the side and, you know, three stripes all over over them and pottus and chandanam and looked like a temple on wheels. Elevators... even elevators you know were all marked up. So all the tools get blessed in, in at least South India, I'm not sure how they do it in North India but this is Tamil Nadu in Karnataka where I've seen it, it's just amazing. So you take the tools of your profession and in this case the silpis will take their chisels and other tools, and blessing them through puja. And in that way we're bringing their religious fully into our daily activities.
Of course, stealing must never, ever happen. Even a penny, a peso, a rupee, a lira or a yen should not be misappropriated or stolen. Defaulting on debts is also a form of stealing. | realize that you are more that energy than you are the physical body through which it flows, more that pure energy than the emotions, than the thought force. Identify yourself with this energy and begin to live your true spiritual heritage on this Earth. As you dive deeper into that energy, you will find that this great power, your sense of awareness and your willpower are all one and the same thing."
So this is a theme we | 86 |
ESG at ASB
Vital Proteins Announces Lease of 37,353 Square Foot Headquarters with Retail Space at ASB and Madison Capital's Fulton Market Redevelopment
CHICAGO, IL – Vital Proteins, a Chicago-based collagen and wellness company, announced today that it has signed a 10-year lease for a permanent headquarters at 939 W. Fulton Market. The new space is expected to be completed in late 2018 and will total 11,750 square feet of retail space and 25,603 square feet of office space. The property is owned and being redeveloped by ASB Real Estate Investments and Madison Capital.
The new headquarters will be an inspirational wellness setting for up to 160 employees. The company continues to see explosive growth as a category leader in collagen-based nutrition and expects to double their total number of employees over the next 18 months. In addition to their new office space, Vital Proteins' employees will enjoy the building's expansive rooftop, which will include outdoor space for the team<|fim_middle|> For more information, please visit www.vitalproteins.com.
About ASB Real Estate Investments
ASB Real Estate Investments (ASB), a division of ASB Capital Management, LLC, is a leading U.S. real estate investment management firm with $7.5 billion* in gross assets under management for over 360 institutional clients. Headquartered in Washington DC, ASB invests in major urban markets across the country, concentrating in office, multifamily, retail and industrial properties. ASB manages the ASB Allegiance Real Estate Fund, its sole vehicle for core investing; the ASB Meridian Real Estate Funds, a series of low-leverage value creation vehicles; and a development separate account.
*as of September 30, 2017
The information provided in the release does not constitute an offer to sell or buy securities or the solicitation of an offer to sell or buy securities.
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ABOUT ASB
ASB Real Estate Investments (ASB), a division of ASB Capital Management LLC, is a leading U.S. real estate investment management firm with more than $7.7 billion* in gross assets under management from over 325 institutional clients. Headquartered in the Washington D.C. area, ASB invests in major urban markets across the United States, concentrating in office, multifamily, retail and industrial properties.
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© Copyright 2021 ASB Real Estate Investments. ASB Allegiance Real Estate Fund is a registered mark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ASB Capital Management I Privacy Policy I Important Disclosures | and an organic urban farm.
"Our vision for 939 W. Fulton is to create an office environment that embodies our values of helping people live full, vibrant lives, and also brings those values to the community with an innovative retail component that will inspire through these health and wellness aspects of Vital Proteins," said Kurt Seidensticker, founder and CEO of Vital Proteins. "We have big plans for the building, and are beginning construction with the concept to develop a community of both employees and the general public. We selected Fulton Market for our headquarters because of its vitality and creative energy."
The move is a return to the West Loop for the four-year-old company. In the early days, Vital Proteins was housed in WeWork's collaborative workspace in the West Loop. As the company grew, it moved to Wicker Park, and eventually returned to Fulton Market this year with an interim lease at its current headquarters at 1201 W. Washington Blvd.
Vital Proteins, a pioneer in the ingestible collagen space, creates clean, sustainably-sourced collagen protein to help support skin, hair, nails, bones and joints. As the business has grown, it has expanded nationally into over 10,000 stores, though it still calls Chicago home. In tandem with the new headquarters, Vital Proteins is also currently constructing a new 180,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility located at 3400 Wolf Road in Franklin Park.
Nick Franzetti, Senior Vice President and Mid-Atlantic Head of Investments for ASB said, "We believe the Fulton Market neighborhood will continue to draw the attention of notable businesses like Vital Proteins as the neighborhood evolves into one of Chicago's most exciting 24-hour submarkets. As our extensive redevelopment activities across our Fulton Market portfolio progress, we expect to meet increasing tenant demand for space in this dynamic and vibrant West Loop location."
In addition to the 939 W. Fulton Market property, the ASB/Madison portfolio includes 936 W. Fulton, 312 N. Carpenter and a new development at 328 N. Carpenter which will feature 95,000 square feet of office space. All four properties are located within short walking distance of Google and McDonald's headquarters.
Kelsey Scheive and Mark Buth of MB Real Estate's Leasing Services represented building ownership in the transaction. Dougal Jeppe and Matthew Stauber of Colliers International represented Vital Proteins.
Vital Proteins is working with Solomon Cordwell Buenz to design their space. The goal is to maintain many of the historic landmark building's original features, including its external structure, exposed brick walls, and wood floors and ceilings. They also plan to blend the wellness company's signature look and feel, which will include greenery and clean, modern design.
About Madison Capital
Madison Capital is a leading real estate investment and operating company focused on creating exceptional opportunities in evolving markets. The firm's portfolio comprises over $2.5 billion of commercial real estate assets in New York, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco. For more information about the company, visit www.mcapny.com.
About Vital Proteins ®
Vital Proteins' whole food-based, collagen-boosting collection was created to nourish those who seek a life without limits and a path to natural, youthful vibrancy. Vital Proteins' products are all-natural sources of essential proteins and nutrients made with the highest quality clean-label ingredients. Get the most out of every day with great-tasting collagen-based nutrition that promotes overall health and wellness from the inside out. | 742 |
Armor Picross 2
Gabriel (gabs.tv) and Kenney (Kenney.nl) brings to you the sequel of the best nonogram puzzle game here on Newgrounds!
Keys: hold "X" or "SHIFT" to mark spaces with an X (to guide you).
If you didn't check Armor Picross 1 (it was released on early 2006), you may need to go to the INSTRUCTIONS to know how to play this game.
This was a project of over 3 months of development, it took a long time to make it, but it was totally worth it!
I hope you enjoy the game and support us by buying Armor Picross Pro!
P.S.: You may be asked to enlarge the SharedObjects space, please press "YES", it's because every puzzle can be saved so you can continue them later!
To save a puzzle (to finish it later) press QUIT >> SAVE AND QUIT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 … 59 … 107
hiimquinn
Fantastic. Unfortunately, there is a glitch wherein it acts as<|fim_middle|> to Webber
Memory Game Classic
by tihard
match the equal cards to win the game, it ll be more dificult each round.
Cat around Europe
by myplayyard
The cat is back and now he's traveling across Europe | if you are marking something when you are not; as if you are still pressing the mouse button even when you let it go. I am on Google Chrome if that helps.
Gretgor
So, either the average solving times are wrong, or I'm a genius, because I'm more often than not way below the average completion time of the puzzles. Either way, picross always gets me addicted. This is not the best picross game I've ever played, but it's way up there.
The graphics are as simple as they have to be, and they are not unappealing. Given that Picross is such a simple game, I'd love to be able to customize the game's appearance (such as in, say, Pixelo), because all that blue eventually bores me. Also, the music is good, but there's only one song, and it eventually gets old. I usually just mute the music and continue playing.
The gameplay is, well, Picross. You get a matrix and indications in the rows/colums that tell you the length of the pixel segments contained in said row/column, and you must use that information to draw the image. There's the option to mark squares with an X, which is very useful, and that's about it.
The controls and user interface are what annoyed me the most in this game, seriously. Sometimes, you just move your mouse a little bit out of the line you're drawing, and that results in drawing over squares you didn't intend to, and losing lives. I like Pixelo better because it contains quick keyboard controls which eliminate this problem. Also, as if it weren't bad enough that the mouse doesn't fixate on the line you're drawing, you don't even get a highlight of the line/column the mouse is pointing at, and that's an even bigger annoyance, especially in the larger levels.
So yeah, given that Picross is such a piss simple concept, you sure could have dedicated more to making the controls less annoying to use.
Lorkas
Can't believe it's 7 years old already! Took me a while to find this gem again, but boy am I glad! Soothing music, smooth design, and levels of various difficulty.
Love this picross game. Super chill soundtrack and challenging puzzles. It's getting a bit dated though...I've been playing Falcross on my iPad which in many ways is even better. Hope they make more!
manuel8887
It's a great game, but it can be a bit repetitive (music: considering how long the game actually is. It only has 3 tracks! That goddamn out of tune guitar!!!), not to mention very damn frustrating, forcing me to rage quit twice so far. I still like the challenge, though, and it's very nice that it forces you to think hard.
regulargabs
Kenney
Caribbean Sunflower. Song
Urban Color Song
don't know why Song
Playing Poker Song
Stu Jam Song
nonogram
Frontpaged December 6, 2007
Daily 2nd Place December 6, 2007
Weekly 5th Place December 12, 2007
ArmorPicross
by regulargabs
Dare yourself on solving chinese puzzles, over 75 levels! Warning: this is addicting!
Medivoid
by Kenney
Try to clear each level without touching the walls!
World Defense
Defend the Earth from meteors in an unique style!
Holland vs. Webb
Kick all the cards back | 744 |
Raft building: Fun team activity to do on the beach. Participants need to design and build a seaworthy raft and then race it in the water with other teams. All materials and instructions are provided.
Cardboard boat regatta: Can be done in a big pool or in calm waters. Teams need to build boats using carton, tape and plastic. Design them like racing boats and then race them in the water. Not all the boats will survive a real test... All materials and instructions are provided.
Formula 1 build and race: This fun activity can be done<|fim_middle|> for big groups. Teams need to draw a part of a big artwork following the instruction. Then all parts will be connected together. The artwork can be kept and installed in the office as a memory. | on a grass loan or inside a ball room. Participants need to assemble and design F1 bolides and then race them with other teams.
Bridge construction: Low energy activity recommended especially for big groups. Can be done both indoor and outdoor. Teams need to build sections of a big bridge, which will be connected in the end. Each team can design their section to make it more colorful. When all sections are connected, there will be a bridge ribbon cutting ceremony and a test with a remote controlled car with a camera on it.
Big picture: Perfect | 110 |
Posted on February 11, 2003 by shacker
Mitnick Hacked
Amused by the fact that Kevin Mitnick's web site has been hacked into twice already since his release a few weeks ago. Of course, the fact that his host was running unpatched IIS (for chrissake!) is not revealed until the second-to-last paragraph of the story.
Mitnick is pedestalized like he's the great hacking guru of time, space, and dimension, but the fact is he's been stuck in a time capsule for years and has much catching up to do to grok the current state of the art. Mitnick running a security company today is like bringing Michelangelo back from the grave and asking him to set up a CPU fab. The world has changed. Hacking has changed. The tools, environment, and culture of hacking have changed tremendously. He'll catch up, but what a lot of egg on face. Yipes.
Unpatched IIS, for chrissake.
Music: Man or Astro-Man? :: Interstellar Hardrive
CategoriesGeek
8 Replies to "Mitnick Hacked"
Nice to see the hacker scum eat their own once in a while. Hopefully they'll be caught. Hopefully they were part of the "free Kevin Mitnick" crowd. I'll be so amused.
Irfon-Kim Ahmad says:
Ultimately, even back in the day, Mitnick was not the world's most technical hacker. He was a master of the con game — social engineering.
Len Kurazawa says:
Oh come on now, Scot; hacking hasn't changed that much. I think the Michelangelo simile is a bit extreme. In 1995, when Mitnick was finally caught, the large majority of internet servers were running UNIX systems<|fim_middle|> being sarcastic. You are right and I thank you for your post. Seriously.
Schnauss says:
But come on.. IIS? On a security site? What's up with that?
Grub says:
OK, I'm a llama. A llama. I really mean that, too. But using IIS in the first place? And unpatched, too? Even llamas know better.
Previous PostPrevious MusicBrainz
Next PostNext Twig-n-Berries | . The same is true now. The methods of cracking UNIX hosts have not changed heavily. Crackers still rely on exploitable buffer overflows in software.
In fact, the UNIX OS model has not been changed drastically for 20+ years.
The fundamental concept of the firewall hasn't changed. TCP/IP itself has remained relatively stagnant — the (coming) adoption of IPv6 aside.
We all know social engineering works exactly the same now as it always has.
Really — the passing of 8 years didn't bring about some kind of massive technology overhaul that has fundamentally changed everything in the computer industry and which would perplex a visitor from the year 1995.
Scot Hacker says:
You're right, Len. Pardon my hyperbole. Thanks for the post.
I guess you're being sarcastic, but that's ok with me.
No Len, I'm really not | 179 |
Home Photography Zeiss-Ikon Nettar 515 (1937)
Zeiss-Ikon Nettar 515 (1937)
July 25, 2016 August 10, 2021 Photography / Reviews
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Nettar 515 which is a medium format folding camera which takes sixteen 6cm x 4.5cm images on 120 roll film. This was the third model in the long-lived Nettar line and first went on sale in 1937. The Nettar line of cameras shared many design similarities with the higher spec Ikonta line, and was aimed at the amateur market. Despite it's status as a "lesser" camera to the Ikonta line, it was a very well built camera that shared many body parts including the hinges and gears with it's big brother. The lenses and shutters in the Nettar line were often lower spec without the wide range of shutter speeds, yet the cameras were often capable of good to excellent shots. The entire Nettar line was produced through the late 1950s and had models that shot in a variety of aspect ratios such as 6cm x 6cm and 6cm x 9cm.
Film Type: 120 Roll Film (16 exposures 6cm x 4.5cm per roll)
Lens: 7.5cm f/4.5 uncoated Novar Anastigmat 3-elements
Focus: 1.2m to Infinity
Type: Scale Focus
Shutter: Zeiss-Ikon Klio Leaf
Speeds: T, B, 1 – 1/175 seconds
Exposure Meter: None
Flash Mount: None
Manual: https://www.flickr.com/photos/diabolical_science/sets/72157616503712908/with/3424023058/
The name "Zeiss" has a long and storied history in the optics industry. It is a name that still exists to this very day as a brand of lenses used by Sony. The Carl Zeiss Foundation still operates today as a maker of a wide variety of products. As recently as 2014, the Carl Zeiss Foundation employs nearly 25,000 workers with annual sales of over 4.5 billion Euro.
A portrait of Carl Zeiss. I do not know when this was taken, but it was most likely near the end of his life.
Originally founded in 1846 by physicist and mathematician Carl Zeiss as Carl Zeiss Jena, it's first products were microscopes and other scientific instruments. The name "Jena" refers to the town the company was founded in, Jena, Germany. In 1872, Carl Zeiss would hire physicist Ernst Abbe who would develop something called the Abbe Sine Condition which improved our understanding of how light passes through glass. It was this discovery that led to the creation of Zeiss's finest lenses. Upon Carl Zeiss' death in 1888, the company would change it's name to Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation in English) and the company would continue on as a leader in the photographic lens industry.
A schematic of Zeiss' first lens, the 4-element Protar.
Zeiss' first photographic lenses were designed by scientist and optician, Paul Rudolph and were called the Zeiss Anastigmat. These first anastigmat lenses had 4 elements and were released in 1889 and eventually were given the name Zeiss Protar. Over the course of the next 2 decades, Rudolph would continue to improve upon his optical formulas and would revolutionize the lens industry releasing pioneer designs like the 6-element Planar and what would become the company's signature lens, the Tessar in 1902.
An interesting bit of history behind Zeiss lenses is that although the Carl Zeiss Foundation did make their own Zeiss branded lenses, the company would also license the optical formulas to other lens makers such as Bausch & Lomb in New York, E. Kruass in Paris, and Ross in London. This helped the company gain worldwide notoriety by quickly spreading it's name and designs to manufacturers all around the world without having to physically expand into these markets. It was a risky move as Zeiss had to depend on these other companies to physically make their lenses true to the original designs, but it ended up working as<|fim_middle|> at 8:54 am 5 months ago
Thats three elements.
Good catch! I updated it! 🙂 | Zeiss quickly became one the most highly regarded optical companies of the 20th century, a name that continues to be used today.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, the German camera industry was highly successful. There were dozens of pioneering companies making all forms of innovative cameras, lenses, and other optical equipment. Aside from the George Eastman company out of Rochester, NY, the majority of the world's photographic industry was based around these German companies. In 1926, four different companies (Contessa-Nettel, Ernemann, Goerz, and Ica) would all merge together with financial backing from the Carl Zeiss Foundation, and form Zeiss-Ikon. While I could not find any evidence of this in my research, my guess is these 4 smaller companies felt they could be more competitive by joining forces in the increasingly competitive photographic industry.
Although the Carl Zeiss Foundation would maintain it's presence in Jena, the newly formed Zeiss-Ikon would dominate what would become the East German camera industry in Dresden. A large percentage of Zeiss-Ikon cameras would come with Zeiss brand lenses. It would sign contractual agreements to use Compur shutters in a majority of its mid to high spec cameras. Only the more basic cameras would be allowed to use "lesser" shutters or non Zeiss lenses.
In their early years, Zeiss-Ikon would primarily make folding plate and box cameras, but in 1929, would release a new line of folding cameras designed for roll film called the Ikonta. The Ikonta line would be very diverse, consisting of models that used 120, 116, 616, and 127 format film. The Ikonta line would last for about 30 years, concluding with the Super Ikonta 534/16 of 1959.
This is an ad from the 1935 Central Camera catalog showing the prices of the import version of the Ikonta, called the Ikomat.
All Ikonta cameras were very well built and came with high spec shutters and lenses, and cost quite a bit of money for the advanced amateur photographer. A 1935 catalog from Central Camera in Chicago shows imported Ikomats (the US version of the Ikonta) starting at $19.75 for the Model C with Novar f/6.3 lens and going as high as $56 for a Model D with Zeiss Tessar f/4.5 and Compur shutter. When adjusted for inflation these prices are $347 to $985 in 2016.
This is an ad from the 1943 Central Camera catalog showing prices of two Nettar models. Inflation was roughly 25% higher in 1943 compared to the 1935 ad on the left.
A couple of years after the release of the Ikonta (some sources say 1933, some say sooner), Zeiss-Ikon would release a line of lower spec Ikontas which they branded as the Nettar. The Nettar line would be similar to the Ikonta line in that they were medium format folding cameras that came in a variety of aspect ratios. In many cases, body parts, hinges, and viewfinders would be shared between the Ikonta and Nettar line. Look at the stock photos in the two catalog pictures to the left and the right, and you'll notice that the cameras look nearly identical. Although some Nettars could be purchased with Compur shutters, they generally had more basic Derval, Telma, and Klio shutters with Novar Anastigmat lenses.
A 1943 catalog from Central Camera in Chicago lists a Nettar A with a Klio shutter and f/4.5 lens selling for $30 and a Nettar C with a Telma shutter and f/6.3 lens selling for $20. Its worth noting that comparing the two ads above is a little difficult since there was a huge amount of inflation between the 1935 and 1943 catalog. Using the CFI Inflation calculator, the Nettar A and C from 1943 would have cost $23.76 and $15.84 in 1935, respectively. When adjusted for inflation, this amounts to $417.98 for the Nettar A and $510.23 for the Ikomat A in 2016 dollars. Add a Tessar f/4.5 lens and Compur shutter to the Ikomat and that amounts to $844.51 in 2016 dollars, double that for a comparable Nettar!
The Nettar 515 was a 6cm x 4.5cm folding camera made between the years 1937 – 40.
The model I am reviewing here is called the Nettar 515 which was in production from 1937 to about 1940 when it was replaced by the Nettar 516. The 516 added double exposure prevention and a revised selection of lenses. There was also a 6cm x 9cm version of this camera called the Nettar 515/2 which actually debuted in 1933, four years prior to the "regular 515".
After World War II, Zeiss-Ikon would be split into separate West German and East German divisions. The East German version of the company would remain in Dresden and would become a state owned corporation and it's name would be changed to VEB Zeiss Ikon Dresden. The name would be changed once again to VEB Kinowerke Dresden in 1958 and then VEB Pentacon Dresden a year later.
The West German version of the company would continue to use the Zeiss-Ikon name as Zeiss-Ikon AG Stuttgart, but would struggle due to the weak post-war German economy and in 1965 would merge with Voigtländer, another highly regarded camera manufacturer. Zeiss-Ikon would continue to sell cameras under it's own name until around 1972 when the company would cease operations altogether. What remained of the old Zeiss-Ikon company would be purchased by Rollei where the "Contax" brand was revived and licensed to Japanese camera maker, Yashica.
An approximate timeline of the history of Zeiss. Image obtained through Flickr's Creative Commons License.
In the decades after the war, despite the confusing state of both Zeiss brands, they would maintain their reputation as a world class camera maker, but it would be their lenses that would continue to be the "banner" product in their portfolio. Zeiss would continue to refine and improve their optics. The Tessar design would be the most copied lens design in history as manufacturers from the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, France and Italy would all have "Tessar style" lenses.
During my research for this article, I found the entire history of the Zeiss brand to be pretty confusing, especially from the 1970s – 90s, but it seems that the Carl Zeiss Foundation still existed and after the reunification of Germany in 1989, would attempt to revive the Zeiss-Ikon brand. In 2005, an all new rangefinder known as the Zeiss-Ikon ZM would be released. Built by Cosina in Japan, it would use the Leica M-mount and would be seen as a successor to the Leica M7. It would be built alongside the Cosina made Voigtländer Bessas and would use the same lenses. Although this camera is no longer made, Zeiss still has a full product page for it on it's website.
Today, the Zeiss brand is still highly regarded and as such most of their products are appealing to collectors. The Nettar line usually doesn't go for very much on the used market, but examples in good condition can easily fetch prices as high as $50 on eBay. For someone looking to shoot with a pre or post war Ikonta, but doesn't want to spend the money that those cameras typically sell for, the Nettar is an excellent alternative. The bodies are nearly identical, and if taken care of should still operate with the same precision as they did when they were new. Although the more basic shutters and lenses don't have the impressive technical specs of a Compur/Tessar combo, they are still capable of wonderful shots.
The 6cm x 4.5cm aspect ratio has become my favorite ratio when shooting medium format. Also notice the wooden spool which came in the camera.
The Zeiss-Ikon Nettar was never a camera I had set my targets on, but after owning a couple of Japanese 6cm x 4.5cm folding cameras which were heavily based upon the Ikonta A, I started to develop a fondness for the compact 645 format.
Then, on Father's Day 2016, my wife said she had a present for me. She handed me one of those colorful gift bags filled with tissue paper and upon opening it up, I pulled this little black leather and nickel camera out of it. Now, before I go on, I have to say that my wife repeatedly rolls her eyes at my camera hobby. While she doesn't directly oppose it, she thinks the whole concept of owning more than a few cameras is downright silly. She sees the enjoyment I get out of testing and reviewing these cameras, so I guess she thinks that there's far worse things I could be doing with my money and free time. She's even asked to shoot a couple of my cameras once or twice, but beyond the occasional "oh that's neat" from her, she's rarely shown any interest in expanding my collection.
So upon pulling that camera out of the bag, I couldn't believe my eyes. She had a nervous smile on her face because she told me she picked this thing up the day before at a random estate sale. She had a doctor's appointment to which she was going to get there an hour early, and she saw the sign for the sale and figured that would be a good way to kill some time. The estate sale was on "the good side of the tracks" and as such the house had a lot of high priced items. She saw nothing of interest in the house, and was ready to leave, but then she saw this little gem sitting on a kitchen counter. She said two guys were going back and forth on a price for some other item, when she asked the guy if he would take $15 for the camera, and without hesitation, he said "yeah sure" and went back to negotiating with the other guy over something worth quite a bit more.
Not knowing anything about this camera or what it was worth, she didn't know if $15 was the deal of the century, or a complete waste of money. She said it pained her to not be able to call me to ask my thoughts on it, but she wanted to surprise me with it, so she had to bite her tongue.
The film door shows the Zeiss-Ikon logo embossed into the leather along with the elegantly designed sliding frame counter door.
As it would turn out, her instincts were quite good. I've said in other articles that you can often rely on the physical shape of a camera to determine it's condition. If it looks nice, there's a good chance it works fine and that held true here.
The thing is, this Nettar didn't just look nice, it was gorgeous. It was in nearly perfect condition. The inclusion of a wooden spool in the film compartment suggests that it's seen very little use in it's 80 or so years since it was made. The lens had no noticeable scratches, haze, or fungus and the bellows were supple and light tight. The body covering wasn't peeling and there was no chipped paint. There was no corrosion anywhere on the body other than two very small Zeiss bumps on the film door. The focus, aperture, and shutter movements all worked wonderfully. She had no idea of how to even fire the shutter, so after I went through it's functions, I did notice the camera's one and only fault was that the slow speeds were sluggish. I can easily clean this shutter and restore the slow speeds, but the fast speeds 1/50 and up all sounded good to the ear. I told her how good of a job she did on this and how happy I was with the camera and she was really relieved.
I saw this as an opportunity to increase her interest in my hobby, so I felt as though I should take advantage of her excitement and move this camera up in the queue faster than I otherwise would with a new acquisition. I can wait to clean the shutter to restore the slow speeds later. As luck would have it, the next weekend we had a trip planned for a family reunion in Eau Clare, Wisconsin, so I knew this would be one of the cameras that needed to come with.
The top plate is pretty spartan, but everything is here to capture great images with this camera.
The Nettar is pretty similar to other 6cm x 4.5cm cameras like the Japanese Kuribayashi Karoron and the Zenobia which are essentially clones of the Ikonta to which the Nettar is based off. Like those cameras, the shutter release is on the left side of the top plate. The button to the right of the viewfinder is the release for the door catch. This is a self erecting camera, but it does need some help to fully open the camera, but otherwise is a snap to get open and ready to shoot in less than a second.
Unlike those Japanese cameras however, this one has a flip up viewfinder like that of other pre-war cameras. Although more primitive and probably less accurate due to the moving design, I actually find these flip-up viewfinders to be easier to use. For one, they are larger and easier to clean than most rigid viewfinders. But also, their moving design allows for a little bit of fore/aft adjustment which acts as sort of a primitive adjustable diopter. I made a similar observation in my review for the Kodak 35 that when wearing prescription glasses, this style of viewfinder allows for easy compensation for people like myself with poor vision.
The shutter and lens is basically the only difference between a Nettar and an Ikonta. Instead of a Tessar and a Compur, you get a Novar and a Klio.
Adjusting focus is just a matter of rotating the entire front lens element. My example had distance markings in meters. Based on the presence of this model in a Central Camera catalog, this model was exported to the United States, so its plausible that some examples exist with markings in feet, but I cannot be sure.
The shutter speed selector is a rim set design similar to most other German shutters like the Prontor or Compur. The Klio shutter has an odd maximum top speed of 1/175. I wonder why they didn't just list it as 1/200 since spring loaded shutter speeds weren't that accurate anyway. Despite this relatively slow top speed, it was more than adequate for film of the era which rarely exceeded ASA 50.
Finally, moving the aperture selector is a simple movement of a metal tab near the back of the shutter. At it's widest, the maximum aperture was f/4.5 which was standard for low spec lenses of the day and more than adequate for almost all outdoor lighting situations. Interior shots would definitely require stabilization and use of the slower speeds, or even the T or B modes.
I really enjoyed shooting my first roll through the Nettar and had pretty high hopes for the the images it captured, but would my positive experience using the camera result in good images?
I shot my first roll using slightly expired Portra 160. The film was less than 10 years old, so I just shot it at box speed and upon receiving the results, I can say that not only did the film perform quite well, the camera exceeded my expectations.
Infinity sharpness is razor sharp.
These next two photos were shot about 10 feet away from me, but also show that capturing a moving toddler is possible with this camera.
This is the only image of the 6 here in heavy overcast and is the only that shows vignetting at the corners, but otherwise is a great shot.
The Nettar is a fine "candid" camera.
While I regret getting the moving car in the background, the rest of this image is great!
I was extremely pleased with these results. Taking into account that all I did to this camera was wipe it down when I received it, the shutter is clearly working at nearly correct speeds. I nailed the exposure using Sunny 16 on all shots. Although a few of my shots did not have perfect focus, I believe them all to be either due to body movement or just my inexperience with this particular model. To get more than half of an inaugural roll in focus on a scale focus camera like this tells me the issue is with the photographer, not the camera. Finally, the bellows showed no signs of light leaks. I did not see any streaks or any other lighting anomalies anywhere on any of the images.
The Nettar is supposed to be a "lesser" camera to the Ikonta. It has a "lesser" Novar lens and a "lesser" Klio shutter. Based on the two advertisements earlier in this article, when adjusted for inflation, in 2016 dollars a Nettar A similar to the model reviewed here with f/4.5 lens and Klio shutter would cost $417.98 today, and a Ikomat (US version of the Ikonta) with f/4.5 Tessar lens, and Compur shutter would cost $844.51. While using an inflation calculator to compare two different import cameras based off catalogs that are 7 years apart might not be the most exact way to measure, even if my math is a bit off, it proves that the Nettar was a significantly less expensive camera to the Ikonta/Ikomat of the same era.
This is a 1:1 crop of the center of the frame. The "Yardworks" logo on the sprayer is easily read showing a very high level of detail.
Despite this nearly 50% price difference, I can't honestly see how the Nettar could be considered anything but an equal to the Ikonta. You should also take into account that back in the 1930s and 40s, the quality of the film and our ability to "scan" negatives was significantly less advanced than it is today. Using modern film like Kodak Portra 160 and a modern digital scanner, I am able to extract more detail out of the negatives than anyone could have seen 80 years ago. If there was a difference in quality between what I got using this Nettar compared to an Ikonta, I should have been able to see it using these scans, and while I don't have an Ikonta to compare to, I have seen negatives using other cameras with Tessar lenses, and I simply do not see a difference.
The question of "whats a good first medium format camera" gets asked often. While the answers to that question will vary wildly based on who is answering it, I can wholeheartedly say that a Nettar 515 with Novar f/4.5 lens and a Klio shutter is as good as any. The camera is extremely well built, and assuming it was stored properly, should work fine today. It has a lens and shutter combination that looks average on paper, but in actuality can deliver results as good as anything else out there.
If I had to be extra critical of the shots posted above, the one of the bearded man sitting in a chair shows some noticeable vignetting in the corners. In my opinion, this actually looks quite nice, considering the portrait nature of the photograph, but there could be those who do not prefer that look. The vignetting was not visible in any of the other shots, but that could be due to the fact that this very same shot was the only one not shot in direct sunlight. Perhaps the Novar lens only begins to show it's weaknesses when the lighting is less than perfect.
Not that anyone needs any more evidence that Zeiss-Ikon made great cameras, but when you get great shots from what was considered to be a "budget" model, you know that it can only get better from there. I love the 6cm x 4.5cm format. Despite it being the smallest of the medium format aspect ratios, the exposed image is still over 3 times larger than that of a 35mm image which allows for much more detail in your image. When I can consistently get images like these from a relatively basic camera like the Nettar, adding this camera into a regular rotation is a no brainer for me. Zeiss' stellar reputation as a top-tier lens maker is definitely deserved as they clearly had their lens formulas sorted out back then. This is a great camera, and I cannot wait to use it again!
The Zeiss-Ikon Nettar 515 is the budget model of the Ikonta A. A folding 6cm x 4.5cm camera, it shared almost all body parts with it's more expensive brother, but came with lens and shutter combinations that were "less" than what was available on the Ikonta. As a result, the Nettars cost as much as half the price of a comparable Ikonta when new, and that price difference still exists today as used Nettars often go for much less than Ikontas on the used market. This "disparity" only exists on paper though, because the results from this Nettar are truly spectacular. The camera is built extremely well, the bellows are still light tight after nearly 80 years, and the camera feels solid in your hands with no creaks or groans. Zeiss has maintained a reputation after all these years as a top tier optics company, but this model proves that they made great cameras as well. I can't recommend this camera enough, and if you spot one in remotely good condition, buy it immediately.
Bonus +1 for the complete package, this is a great camera
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Zeiss_Ikon_Nettar
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Nettar
http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/zinetter.htm
https://thefilmrenaissance.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/a-busy-sunday/
http://www.thecamerasite.net/03_Folder_Cameras/Pages/zeisnettar.htm
http://photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00aboO
https://sites.google.com/site/fromthefocalplanetoinfinity/nettar
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Donato Chirulli
July 25, 2016 at 1:19 pm 5 years ago
Really a very good and complete article! And thanks for the link to my test.
My 515 is fitted with a "Nettar" lens (but I believe it's the same of Novar)… and I was such impressed by the I.Q. of this little camera to buy immediately another (this time it had a Novar) in similar good conditions. So, at least, I'll have some repair parts for it………….. 😉
Kurt Sawitskas
October 16, 2018 at 10:26 pm 3 years ago
Mike – I love your site! I was hunting for info about my recently-acquired Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515 (f4.5 Klio), and you have put it to the test. Thanks for all the history and photo tests. I picked mine up from a guy selling other photo stuff on eBay. He was local, so I went to looky. Turns out that he had bought a storage locker at auction and was selling it out. I bought some other stuff, then he dove deep into a pile and pulled out the Nettar. Neither of us knew anything about it (I could guess!). He practically threw it into the deal.
Like yours, mine had sticky slow speeds. Otherwise, extremely clean. It had an old roll of Kodacolor inside – indicating that it hadn't been shot since the mid-60's! I took it my favorite camera repair, who cleaned the lens and shutter. I've bought some contrast filters, too. Really looking forward to working with this 6×4.5 format, and figuring out how to estimate focus! I love the compact feel of this camera, much less bulky than my Yashica MAT 124G.
One other odd detail about this camera is that it seems that the red windows are at the top, while modern film seems to mark the 6×4.5 frames on the bottom edge! Basically, I can't see the Start or Frame numbers in the windows. I'm working this out, but wonder if you have any clues that you'll share? From my tests, I think that one full turn of the winding knob should be enough film advance. It may be a little too much. I'll just test and adjust. Maybe I'll have a few rolls with only 15 frames….
November 28, 2018 at 7:38 am 3 years ago
You have made first class images from the Nettar. These old folders are still very usable today and immense fun. Last year my partner surprised me at Xmas with a Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/2. It has the Tessar lens and a full range of speeds on the rim~set shutter. Viewfinder is the pop~up variety and oiling the chrome hinges helped the camera to fully open when I press the button. Using Ilford FP4 (I'm in the UK) at 100 iso I get 8 6X9cm pictures per roll. I had contact prints made and they are quite viewable at this size. My camera is pristine so I sourced a leather case and strap on eBay uk.
Metered using a Weston Master 11 A's it has the same speeds – 25-50-100-200 etc. Really great fun and strange looks from the plastic bodied digital boys. Serial number dates my camera to circa 1933. Its as well to know when they ask.
August 19, 2020 at 7:04 pm 1 year ago
How do you align the numbers printed on modern films to the film windows?… I have the version with the two film windows by the way… I read somewhere that Kodak eliminated the double numbers from the film backings but what about other brands? According to the manual there should be a set of two numbers (1-1) (2-2) etc. that should perfectly align to left an right windows but Fomapan has only one number. How does this work? … (Sorry if I double posted… please delete)
If yours has two windows, then you shoot your first exposure when the number 1 is in the first window. Then advance the film until the number 1 is in the second window and shoot your second exposure. Then advance the film until the number 2 is in the first window and shoot your third exposure, then advance until number 2 is in the second window to shoot your fourth exposure and so on. Keep doing this until the number 8 is in the second window, at which time you've shot your sixteenth exposure.
September 23, 2020 at 4:29 am 1 year ago
Great article. I've just acquired a Nettar 515 in excellent condition as a gift. It has a Nettar Anastigmat 75mm f6.3 lens with the focus scale marked in feet. I haven't used it yet but hope to put a roll of Tri-X through it soon.
Dana Brigham
November 14, 2020 at 8:57 pm 1 year ago
Hey Mike — me again (Dana) — I just ended up with Nettar 515 also. Netter 7.5cm/f4.5 lens. Everything seems in working order — but mine also, as someone else noted, has double film-counter windows on the back — at the "top" — just under the view finder. They line up just to the "inside" of the metal film rollers inside. So I think if I did the suggestion of "1" in first window for first shot, then "1" in second window for second shot, the edges of the frames would overlap just a little. Yeah — just checked a 120 backing paper — the 6×4.5 numbers are on the "bottom" and the 6c9 numbers are on the top — where the two windows on mine are. Hmmmm. Hope to try it out with something around ASA 100 (can't bring myself to use "ISO" with film!) this week if we get some sun. Much more compact than the 6×9 folders!!! Cheers! –Dana
Hi again, Mike – I'd like to add a couple of details about my Nettar 515 and ask a couple of questions. I have a Nettar 515 6×4.5 with Klio shutter and Novar 7.5cm f4.5 lens. Serial number F37649. Since I first wrote, I've had the camera CLA'd and the shutter is working great!
I have two film counting windows at the top. Interestingly, the inside of the back cover has this stamped:
Zeiss Ikon Film
6x9cm B2 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 in
So, maybe the 6×9 cover explains why I have two windows at the top! Did the factory originally install 6×9 covers on all these Nettars?
You noted that the 515 was built from 1937 to 1940. Is there a serial number list anywhere to tell when mine was built? Perhaps the year of manufacture is coded in the first two digits of the s/n? F37649 might be a hybrid serial number code for Year+serial, and might confirm 1937.
Kurt — just took my 515 out for my first roll today (Nettar Anistigmat 7.5cm/f4.5 lens with Kilo shutter). The only CLA was me cleaning the front lens element and the inside (rear of the rear) lens element! And running the shutter through it's paces for 15 minutes before loading the film. Shooting Ultrafine Extreme 100 B&W (cheap!) — was sunny today so I ended up at the faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures. I found that Mike's recommendation of how to use the two frame-number windows with the 6×9 numbers was also in the manual — so that's what I did. I think that I am a little more than 1/2 through the roll. Will try to get some more shots later this week. But — where did you get your CLA done? The serial number on mine, the best that I can make out, is J28684 — which would not seem to decode easily to any year in the correct range. Oh yeah — the inside of the back of mine also is stamped with 6×9 and the 6×9 frame size — which was definitely confusing at first — I don't think that the back is nearly big enough for a real 6×9 camera — so maybe a manufacturing error? Or at the time 6×4.5 was not a recognized frame size for 120 film — so they are telling us to get 6×9 (12) film — and they had to use the two frame-counter windows to show the 6×9 numbers since there were no 6×4.5 numbers printed on backing paper back then? Well, it has been fun to use and compact — can't wait to see the resuls…. Cheers — Dana
Hi Dana — Thanks for your reply! Manual…what manual?! Actually, the only manual I found online shows a camera with only one window, so it doesn't explain the winding scheme for this particular (peculiar?) camera. The only trouble I have with this scheme is getting the first frame in position.
I live in Los Angeles, so I used Walter's Camera Repair, http://www.walterscamerarepairs.com/ They've handled several of my cameras and lenses and I've been very happy with their consultations and repairs.
Thanks for the other info (busting my hopes of confirming the year from a coded serial number!). Maybe somebody has a serial number list….
I have wondered about whether I could find a back plate with lower windows. But since your's seems to be the same model as mine, it was probably built that way, and we'll have to struggle to adapt modern film markings to this old camera. Aside from wishing that the camera had lugs for a neckstrap, I love the feel of this little thing!
I'm going to start with 400 speed film because I use a color filters for my BW work. I feel the need – the need for speed!
Check way up at the top of the article where Mike lists the specs for the camera, and there is a link to photos of the manual on flickr. I was thinking of using my typical red/yellow/orange filters on a future roll if the camera is working OK — what would be your suggestion for getting filters onto this thing?
So far using the two frame-number windows and the 6×9 frame numbers (which appear upside-down) per Mike's instructions and the manual has been working — at least the red windows are clear and I can see the printing on the backing paper and I have been careful to follow the procedure, and wind right after every shot. I think — I hope! 🙂 Well, with 16 shots it won't be a disaster if I get a double-exposure or two, or skip a frame.
I'll check with Walter's Camera Repair and see how many houses I'll have to mortgage to pay for CLA on my waaaaaay too many vintage cameras!!! I'd say I end up with about 75% working through my own cleaning and tweaking and minor fixes — but a good 25% do not work, or almost work but the repairs needed are beyond my meager capabilities.
And yes — it's a great photographer-vest pocket sized camera, but I'd prefer to hang it around my neck.
Thanks!!! If I manage to get anything decent from it, I'll probably put a few shots up on my Instagram (which I use to share interesting photos, most from vintage film cameras)….
Dana,
Let me know where to see your photos. I'll have to come up a few of my own, too.
The filter adapters are pretty common. They are just aluminum rings with metal tabs that you adjust to fit over the outer knurled grip at the front of the lens assembly. Very Old-Skool! This camera needs a 36mm adapter, which will fit Series 5 (sometimes Series V) filters. I just did a search on eBay for "series 5 36mm adapter ring" and got lots of hits at about $5. Of course, then look for Series 5 filters. For this camera, I also have a Tiffen Series 5 lens shade that screws onto the adapter ring and holds the filter while providing nice shade for the uncoated lens. I wish I could show a few photos, but haven't figured out how to do that in this forum.
BTW, I find that Walters is not very expensive. Especially for a CLA. There are no expensive electronics to replace!
Look for "kiltbeardmedia" on Instagram and submit a follow request — let me know what Instagram name to look for so that I can approve it. I don't have too many photos there — I am very picky with what I post. Having shot about 6500 photos since I got back into film 18 months ago. I do have some of those adapters for Series V, Series VI old filters — but yep, I'll need an adapter. I have old Series V and similar filters, but most of them are not in great shape. Never thought to look for new ones — I'll figure something out!
November 16, 2020 at 10:03 pm 1 year ago
My Instagram is Kurt_Dean.
I'm very lucky to have picked up a very nice set of very old Series V filters. I wish you luck. They're worth having!
November 17, 2020 at 9:56 am 1 year ago
Kurt and Dana, thanks for the interesting conversation. I haven't yet replied to this thread as I've enjoyed reading your back and forth!
November 17, 2020 at 10:28 am 1 year ago
Hah! Leaving me and Kurt to do all of the hard work! Stay safe!
Kurt — OK — approved your follow of me and I clicked to follow you (not a big fan of Instagram, but it's free!). Yeah — I do need to upload some more example photos from my many other vintage cameras (and a few from my mirrorless). — Dana
Recently, I've been making myself busy by rebuilding my 1965 Beseler 45MCRX enlarger, but this thread has inspired me to pull out the 515 and GO SHOOT! Dana – thanks for the tips! And Mike, thanks for this great forum and write-up of the Nettar 515.
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NextUS, Dominican XST pivot as draft approaches
San Diego Padres Daily Farm Report: June 2
John Conniff on June 3, 2018
Osvaldo Hernandez is having one of the better seasons in the organization. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
Both the Chihuahuas and Missions struggled on the mound, but a pair of Cuban lefthanders came up big for Lake Elsinore and Fort Wayne on Saturday night.
Sacremento River Cats 8, Chihuahuas 4
Key Statistics: SS Javy Guerra 2-4, 2B, RBI, 2E; RF Forrestt Allday 2-3, 2B; RHP Jesse Scholtens 4.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2BB, 4K; LHP Fred Schlichtholz 3 IP, 2 H, 4K; LHP Tyler Webb (L, 1-1) 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2K; RHP Robert Stock (BS, 1) 1 IP, 2H, 3R (1ER), 2K.
Prospect Watch: Javy Guerra's RBI double in the top of the eighth inning put El Paso up by a run until the River Cats sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs in the top of the ninth to send the Chihuahuas to their third straight loss. … After a truly dreadful May when Guerra hit .110/.151/.134, he has put together a five-game hitting streak. … Coronado High School's Fred Schlichtholz, a 13th-round pick in last year's draft, made his Triple-A debut. Earlier this year he struggled with the TinCaps, mainly with his control, before being sent back to Extended Spring. He will likely move back down the organization when Walker Lockett and Kaz Makita report back to the club in the next day.
Springfield Cardinals 11, Missions 6
Key Statistics: CF Michael Gettys 2-4, HR (9), RBI; C Austin Allen 1-3, HR (12), HBP; RHP Colin Rea (L, 0-2) 3.1 IP 8 H, 5 ER, 3K, BB, 2 HR; RHP Lake Bachar 3.0 IP 9 H, 6 ER, 2K, 2BB, HR.
Prospect Watch: The game really wasn't this close as the Missions were down 11-2 going into the top of the eighth inning before San Antonio scored four times; aided by a pair of Cardinals errors. … Colin Rea, who is on a major league rehab, has struggled in all three of his outings in Double-A. The league is hitting .385 against him and he has given up 20 hits in 11.1 innings. In 2015, Rea had a 1.08 ERA for the Missions in 75 innings. … Lake Bachar, after a strong debut when he threw five shutout innings, has seen his ERA balloon to 6.75. … Michael Gettys homered in his third straight game. In May, Gettys hit .289<|fim_middle|> Conniff David Jay
Ben Davey Kevin Charity
Marcus Pond Travis Barnett | /.346/.464 after hitting .195/.279/.377 in April. After a stretch of 20 straight games with a strikeout, the 22-year-old outfielder hasn't Ked in back-to-back games. … Austin Allen also homered for the second consecutive night. However, the real story with Allen has been his improvement defensively. He has yet to make an error behind the plate and has thrown out 33 percent of attempted base-stealers. Last year with the Storm he was barely at 20 percent.
Storm 5, Inland Empire 66ers 1
Key Statistics: LF Buddy Reed 3-4, 2B; 1B Brad Zunica 2-4, HR (6), 2 RBI; LHP Adrian Morejon (W, 3-3) 5 IP, 5 H, 1R, BB, 7K, HR; RHP Blake Rogers 1 IP, 2 K.
Prospect Watch: Adrian Morejon had one of his better starts of the season as he went over five innings for only the second time. Morejon has struck out 47 batters in 45.1 innings against only 16 walks while flashing an upper-90s fastball as a 19-year-old. Over his last four outings, he has a 2.35 ERA. … Buddy Reed is simply having a much better season than any of us thought possible. After hitting .234 last year for Fort Wayne and .254 in short-season Tri-City in 2016, he has a .343/.383/.575 line in 220 plate appearances. The switch-hitter has been particularly good against right-handed pitching at .355/.389/.574. … As David Jay noted last night in his game story from the Diamond, Brad Zunica is starting to get more comfortable with his quieter swing – he ditched his big leg kick this winter. When that happens, baseballs usually get deposited over the outfield walls. In his first two games in June, he has already hit as many home runs (2) as he did in all of May.
Justin Lopez is the youngest player in the Midwest League. Photo Credit: Jeff Nycz.
TinCaps 5, Great Lakes Loons 3
Key Statistics: 2B Justin Lopez 3-3, RBI, 2 BB; LF Robbie Podorsky 4-5, 3B, SB (7); LHP Osvaldo Hernandez (W, 3-2) 6.0 IP 4 H BB K; RHP Evan Miller (S,1) 1.0 IP 2 H 2 K.
Prospect Watch: Very quietly, Osvaldo Hernandez is having one of the better years in the Padres organization. Since May 3, he has thrown 26 innings and given up a grand total two earned runs with 25 strikeouts against only seven walks. Hernandez, 20, was one of the many pitchers the Padres signed from Cuba in the J2 signings of 2016. This spring, the organization was working with him on cutting down the number of different pitches he throws and emphasizing his fastball more. … Justin Lopez began the year as the only 17-year old to make an Opening Day Midwest League roster. In April he struggled hitting .197/.265/.246, but improved in May hitting .267/.315/.465. The switch-hitter may be taller than six-foot-two now and the rangy Lopez is one of the better defensive infielders in the organization. The Padres believe he will show more power as the season goes on…Robbie Podorsky began the year in Extended Spring, but he is doing what Robbie Podorsky always does when someone doubts his ability – make them regret it. Podorksy's slash line has climbed to .385/.442/.538 in 11 games since he got to Fort Wayne and already has seven stolen bases in nine attempts.
The Dominican Summer League kicked off today with the DSL Padres losing 8-5 to the DSL White Sox. We will not usually include them in our wrap-ups but several of the players in yesterday's profile had big days.
Thanks to your subscription dollars, we will have additional coverage of the TinCaps starting next week as I go out to visit Travis Barnett's "office". If you want to subscribe to MadFriars and read all the on-site interviews and coverage, you can subscribe here and not drink a cup of overpriced coffee one day a month.
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Posted in: Featured
Posted by John Conniff
John grew up in Poway and has written for MadFriars since 2004. He has written articles for Baseball America, FoxSports San Diego, the El Paso Times, San Antonio Express-News, Amarillo Globe-News, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and Pacific Daily News in addition to appearing on numerous radio programs and podcasts. He can also break down the best places to eat for all five of the affiliates. There is no best place to eat in Peoria, Arizona.
US, Dominican XST pivot as draft approaches
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